SWP W ill Enter Candidates in 1956 Elections

By Fred HartNEW YORK, Sept. 26 — The National Committee of

the Socialist Workers Party meeting in plenary session last week, decided to enter its own candidates in the 1956pres identia l elections. Named as ------------------------------------------------------candidates were the veteran standard-bearers o f the SWP, F a rre ll Dobbs fo r President and M yra Tanner W eiss fo r V ice- president.

Keynote o f the SW P election cam paign w ill be the need fo r w o rk in g class independent p o lit ­ica l action. G reat emphasis w ill be la id on exposing the treach­erous ro le o f the union bureau­cra ts in keeping labo r tied to the ca p ita lis t tw o -p a rty system th rough th e ir coa lition w ith the Dem ocratic P a rty .

In pursuance o f th is necessary task the iSWP p res iden tia l cam­pa ign in 3956 w il l be carried in to the Sooth where s t ir r in g s o f w o rk in g class s tragg le and po litica l opposition to the South­ern one-party system are becom­in g more and m ore m an ifest.

“ O ur m ain task in the com ing m onths,” declared SW P N a tiona l Secre tary F a rre ll Dobbs, “ is to p a tie n tly exp la in th a t the w o rk ­in g people can solve none o f th e ir basic problems th rough the c a p ita lis t po litica l parties. They must bu ild th e ir own indepen­dent po litica l p a rty and create a w orkers and fa rm ers govern­m ent.”

P O L IT IC A L CLASS L IN E SW e m ust teach the w ork ing

people o f th is coun try , said Dobbs, th a t crossing class lines

on the po litica l field is as re ­pulsive an act o f treachery to labor’s in te rests as crossing a picket line.

In his re p o rt to the N a tiona l Com m ittee on the po litica l s itu ­ation in the country , Dobbs stressed the basic in s ta b ility of he ca p ita lis t economy and the

fact th a t the m ost o p tim is tic of cap ita lis t apologists are ne rv­ously uncerta in about its fu tu re . The cu rre n t p ro spe rity boom, he dem onstrated by fac ts and f ig ­ures, is b u ilt on s h ift in g sand.

The 15 years o f re la tive pros­p e r ity beg inn ing w ith the w ar and extending in to the post-w ar period, Dobbs asserted, could change v ir tu a lly ove rn igh t. Any sharp economic decline w ill in ­ev ita b ly lead to a sharp break in the social eq u ilib rium which would le t loose class-strugg le currents in the labor movement.

T h is is the perspective, said Dobbs, upon which the p a rty is oriented. “ We are now in the decisive period o f p repa ra tion fo r com ing mass actions,” he declared. “ We have the task of so lv ing new problems in a new h is to ric period. We must under­take the great work o f theo re t­ical c la rifica tio n and launch a p o lit ic a l propaganda offensive against a ll o f our opponents. Our aim is to streng then the

(Continued on page 3)-

A n A m e r ic a n H e ro a n d H is Son

Moses W rig h t, 64, and his son M aurice. 12. shown at th e ir fa rm in Money, Miss, where W r ig h t ’s 14-year-old nephew, Em m ett Louis '1’i l l was kidnaped and then beaten, shot and dumped in the Ta llaha tch ie r iv e r. W rig h t stood up at the t r ia l in Sumner. Miss., and w ith quiet power and d ig n ity pointed an accusing fin g e r at the sad istic lynchers Roy B ryan t and his ha lf-b ro th e r .1. W. M ilam . A ll the b u lly in g and pressure o f the wh ite-suprem acist law yers cou ldn 't shake VVright from his testim ony id e n tify in g the k ille rs . He became the sym bol o f the Negro people's s tru g g le against rac is t te rro r.

Republicans Staggered By President’s Illness

By John ThayerEisenhower’s heart, attack is having important poli-

ti:a l repercussions. One thing is certain, no matter how quickly or completely he recovers, he cannot run forre-e lection. 5>-------------------------------------------------------

Th is is a s taggering blow to the plans and hopes o f the top Republican leadership, whose s tra teg y fo r the past three years has been to build up Eisenhower as above p a rty and to make the 3 956 election a p o p u la rity con­test. W ith Eisenhower ou t of the p ic tu re and on ly a handfu l o f unappetiz ing potentia l candi­dates to choose fro m , the Re­publican P a rty w il l be forced to go before Hie voters in what p ra c tica lly amounts to a state o f po litica l nakedness.

W IN D F A L LF o r the Democrats, however.

E isenhower’s rem oval fro m the 1956 p ic tu re is a m arve llous w in d fa ll. Top N o rth e rn Demo­cra tic circ les had p r iva te ly been reconciling themselves to defeat in the com ing presidentia l elec­tion. Now they fee l th a t v ic to ry is assured.

A lthough the press moralizes that th is rap id sh ift in the twopa rties ’ prospects is a tr ib u te to the persona lity o f Eisenhower, it is, ra the r, a strong commen­ta ry on the lack o f im portan t d ifferences in (lie program s o f (he two B ig Business parties.

In the absence o f basic d i f ­ferences in program , the Repub­licans, openly a B ig Business p a rty , can defeat the Democrats, equa lly a B ig Business p a rty b u t w ith some libe ra l trim m ings,

i f on ly they can p u t up a candi­date w ith some personal appeal, like Eisenhower.

A ll the papers ed ito ria lize about E isenhower’s po pu la rity . W h a t is i t based on? Tw o th ings Seem to account fo r E isenhow­e r’s popu la rity .

F irs t, the Am erican people don’t consider h im a professional ca p ita lis t p o litic ian . H is very po litica l awkwardness re inforces th is be lie f. U p t i l ! now his cab­inet members have had to take the rap fo r unpopular acts of the a d m in is tra tion , public op in­ion genera lly absolving E isen­hower as not being responsible.

M ost im p o rta n t, however, is the fact, tha t i t was E isenhow­e r’s good fo rtun e to enter the W hite House at. the moment when U.S. im peria lism had a r­rived a t a stalem ate in its pre­v iously re lentless d rive toward W orld W ar I I I .

( O LD-W VR SLO W DO W NThe unfavorable w orld re la ­

tionship o f forces brought about by the colonial revo lu tions and the Soviet development o f the H-bomb meant th a t o u tr ig h t launching o f w a r was no longer feasible. I t would have to be postponed and in the in te rim d ip lom atic deals would be used to gain as much as possible fo r W a ll S treet u n t il another change

(Continued on page 4)

Vol. X IX — No. 40 * ^ 1 ^ 2 6 7 NEW YORK, N. Y., MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1955 PRICE: 10 Cents

Huge Demonstrations Protest Racist Verdict in Lynch TrialChicago Meeting Votes for March On Washington

By Claude De BruceC H IC AG O . Sept. 25 — Over

5,000 angry people today roared the ir approval o f an N A A C P resolution ca llin g fo r a M arch on W ashington to demand the im m ediate enactment o f a n ti- I.vnch, a n ti-p o ll-ta x and other c iv il r ig h ts leg is la tion. A no ther reso­lu tion , ca llin g fo r a continuous picket line around Chicago’s C ity H a ll, was also passed.

The rcso lu tibns were presented here at a m eeting called to p ro ­test the M ississ ipp i lynch ing o f E m m ett Lou is T ill , 14-year-old Chicago Negro boy.

Cora Patton, local president o f the N a tion a l Association fo r the Advancem ent o f Colored People expressed surprise a t the size o f the tu rn o u t at the meet­ing. The la rge main aud ito rium o f the M e trop o litan Church was filled 45 m inutes before the m eeting was scheduled to begin. Several sm a lle r chapels in the church were then opened. But th is was fa r fro m su ffic ien t. I t was necessary to set up loud­speaking equipm ent on the street to take care o f the several thousand who were unable to get inside.

Charles Hayes, CIO P a ck in g ' house W orkers vice president said, “ Th is is the la rgest m eet­ing I ’ve spen since the W hite Sox threatened to w in the pen­nant.”

The m eeting was ac tu a lly held tw ice. As each speaker finished addressing the crowd inside, he o r she then spoke outside. The bu lk o f the m eeting stood fo r over three hours.

R A K E S TW O P A R T IE SW illo u g h b y Abner, top U nited

A u to W orkers, CIO, o ffic ia l and N A A C P vice president attacked the tw o b ig po litica l pa rties fo r th e ir fa ilu re t.o keep th e ir p rom ­ises on c iv il r ig h ts .

“ These people who organized (he sham eful t r ia l in M ississippi — who do you th in k they a re ? ” asked Abner.

“ D ix icc ra ts ,” someone answer­ed.

“ B u t rem em ber,” A bner con­tinued, “ A D ix ie c ra t is a Demo­c ra t . . . M ayor Daley o f C h i­cago calls on Gov. W h ite o f M is­sissippi to do som ething on the T il l case. V e ry good. B u t w hy does M ayor Daley do no th ing about T rum bu ll P ark where he has d ire c t resp on s ib ility? And remember, Daley is a Dem ocrat . . . And w hat p a rty does the A lderm an o f T rum bu ll Park be­long to? He is a Dem ocrat.”

A bner then called out, “ W hat’s the. answ er?”

w

For a Fighting Negro-Labor Alliance to Smash Jim Crow-------- ■ ------------------------ An Editorial -----------------------------------------The depraved “ whistle murder” of 14-

year-old Emmett Till and the acquittal of the lynchers in a farcical Mississippi courtroom trial has aroused the indigna­tion of the Negro community from coast to coast.

Mass meetings and demonstrations are being held in major cities from one end of the country to the other to protest the latest Mississippi atrocity.

All observers attest to the very "im­pressive size of the demonstrations and the heightened mood of militancy with which the Negro people are imbued. They want action, they are ready for action, they are eager to accept and applaud any reasonable proposal for effective action.

Yet, as a minority of the total popula­tion, they realize that action on their own can only be of a limited character and bring limited results. The target is Jim Crow in all of its ugly manifestations which cannot be maintained without the kind of terror now rampant in the state of Mississippi. The goal is complete economic, political and social equality for the Negro people. This can be achieved by the Negro minority only if they have tested friends — reliable allies with common interests facing a com­mon enemy AND armed with a correct program of action!

Such an ally is today present on the scene — the powerful American organized labor movement. But it speaks with muted

tones through timid and craven leaders whose voices can scarce be heard. And when heard, too often sickens rather than inspires.

In the demonstrations and mass meet­ings held to protest the lynch murder of young Emmett Till, there occasionally ap­peared on the speakers roster a union official of lesser rank, to. join in the protest and to offer advice on behalf of the “ labor statesmen” occupying the summits of the AFL and CIO.

That this advice fell flat is not surpris­ing. For it consisted of the usual plat! tudes. “ You must vote on election day!’ “ Go see your precinct captain and raise hob with him!” “ Write your Senators and Congressmen!” “ Elect our ‘friends’ to of- fi.-e and defeat our ‘enemies’.” And s< forth and so on, ad nauseam!

When you hear a labor leader express­ing the official political line you can be1 your bottom dollar -that when he says “ vote on election day” he means vote Democrat. And when he talks about elect­ing “ friends” and defeating “ enemies” you invariably find the “ friend” turning up in the Democratic column on the ballot.

Aren’t the “ labor statesmen” really aware of the fact that the Democratic Party in the South is directly responsible for the abominations heaped upon the Negro people in the name of preserving

(Continued on page 3)

Mississippi OK’s Child Murder; Negroes Who Testified in Danger

By George LavanNEW \ ORK, Sept. 29 — The anger of the Negro peo­

ple over Mississippi’s brazen acquittal of the fiendish lynchers of 14-year-old Emmett Till boiled over in massivepro test meetings, such as have not been seen fo r decades, in the m a jo r c ities o f the country.

In c ity a f te r c ity reports show the same s to ry as here in New Y ork . P rotest m eetings drew such huge crowds th a t ha lls were filled to capacity, then a ll ava ilab le s tanding space was ra p id ly filled and then thousands more stood de te rm ined ly outside, the m eeting ha lls lis te n in g fo r hours to the speeches over pub­lic address systems.

T E L L IN G T H E W O RLDThe tremendous r e s p o n s e ,

which everywhere fa r surpassed the expectations o f the m eetings’ sponsors, showed th e 1 depths to which the T il l lyn ch in g has s t i r ­red the N egro people. The thous­ands s tand ing in the streets were not m ere ly lis te n in g to speeches; they were phys ica lly dem onstra ting to thé rac is t r u l ­ers o f the South, to the ru lin g class o f the U.S.. and to w orld op in ion th e ir w ra th over the T il l lynch ing . F o r th is atrocious ch ild - m urdcr and its endorsement by the governm ent o f M ississipp i epitom izes the b ru ta li ty and m ockery o f ju s tice th a t consti­tutes A m erica ’s J im Crow system.

In New Y ork the A F L B ro th ­erhood o f S leeping Car Porters, headed by the veteran N egro leader. A . P h ilip Randolph, an­nounced a pro test m eeting fo r Sunday, Sept. 25 at W illia m s In s titu t io n a l C M E Church in H arlem . O ver 10.000 people came. The church and its aisles were soon packed. Then the crowd overflow ed onto Seventh Ave., which is a divided street. S idewalks on both sides, as w e ll is that in the center, were soon i dense mass o f hum an ity .

In D e tro it crowds, va rious ly estim ated at fro m 10,000 to 20,-

A. P H IL IP R A N D O LP H

000, poured out to hear Negro Congressman D iggs ’ eyewitness re p o rt on the Sumner M ississipp i t r ia l . The church a t w h ich the m eeting was scheduled was soon filled and an add itiona l church had to be secured. Even th is proved in su ffic ie n t and thousands listened fro m the streets.

In Chicago i t was the same s to ry o f add itiona l m eetings hav­ing to be arranged fo r the over­flow crowds. In the m eeting ha lls and on the streets reso lu tions were passed fo r a M arch on W ashington and fo r a con tin ­uous p icke t line around C ity H a ll.

E a r lie r m eetings in o ther cities, such as C leveland and B a ltim ore , to ld the same s to ry of record tu rno u ts fo r m eetings on the T il l lynch ing. The in d ig ­nation o f the Negro people has no t reached such he ights since the days o f the 'Scottsboro ease.

A no ther feature, common to (Continued on page 2)

A Record Turnout at Detroit’s MeetingSeveral voices from the throng

shouted hack, “ L e t’s have our own p a rty ,” “ A Labor P a r ty !”

C aught o f f guard, Abner qu ick ly re to rted , “ I don’t mean th a t! W hat I mean is, we must stop v o tin g the s tra ig h t p a rty ticke t. No p a r ty should he able to say i t has the Negro vote in its pocket.”

PASS R E S O LU TIO N SThe aud icnct reserved its

g rea test applause fo r the reso­lu tions presented by Gerald B u l­lock, le g is la tive d ire c to r o f the Chicago N A A C P . The first, reso­lu tio n called on the national N A A C P to organize a M arch on W ashington.

The second reso lu tion called fo r the. o rgan iza tion o f a picket line as soon as possible around the Chicago C ity H a ll to get action fro m the c ity a d m in is tra ­tion on the ra c is t te rro rism in the T rum bu ll P a rk federa l hous­ing p ro ject. This reso lu tion was amended to read “ im m ed ia te ly ” instead o f “ as soon as possible.”

Bullock commented tha t in his experience, “ Resolutions have never been passed hefore in fhe streets o f Chicago, bu t they w ill

[ be today. T h is is a new day.”

By William BundyD E T R O IT , Sept. 25— The la rg ­

est mass dem onstra tion o f Neg- | roes in the h is to ry o f th is c ity j occurred today at a m eeting ca ll­ed by the N A A C P to protest the reign o f te rro r against Negroes in M ississipp i. P rinc ipa l speaker a t (he m eeting was U.S. Con­gressman Charles C. Diggs, Democrat, from M ich igan ’s 13th d is tr ic t who gave an eyewitness report o f the T i l l m urder tr ia l.

A crowd o f 4,000 filled the Bethel A M E Church which was b u ilt to hold on ly 2,500. A sec­ond church about a block away was opened in an a tte m p t to em pty the aisles in the firs t bu ild ing , bu t it. too was qu ick ly filled to over-capacity.

D iggs spoke a t both churches to an audience o f over 6,000. Though there was no loudspeak­er arrangem ent, add itiona l thous­ands stood in a qu ie t, de te rm in ­ed dem onstra tion in the sur- r.O'jnding streets. T ra f f ic was bum per to bum per fo r blocks around the area.

The N A A C P o ffic ia ls were ob­v ious ly unprepared fo r the size and tenor o f the m eeting. The cha irm an spoke apo loge tica lly about the size o f the m eeting place, adding: “ We do n o t a l­ways an tic ipa te every con tin ­gency.” He spoke o f the dan­gerous s itua tion created by the ja m m ing o f the aisles and ex­horted those stand ing to leave. The crowd was o rde rly , qu ie t, and po lite , bu t would not leave.

People approaching the en­trance would bo to ld by others s tand ing there tha t it was im ­possible to get in. “ But I 'v e got to got in there ,” they would say.

A woman pushed her way out from inside. “ A rc you le a v in g ? ” someone asked. “ N o t at a ll, ” she replied, “ B u t i t is too t ig h t in there fo r me. I ’l l stand outside.”

“ Th is m eeting should have been held in a stad ium ,” said one person. A m iddle-aged w om ­an answered b itte r ly , “ I t ^should be held in M iss iss ipp i.” “ Am en,” “ T h a t’s r ig h t , ” echoed the sur­round ing crowd.

“ I hear the European News­papers are g iv in g th is case real coverage,” someone said. And everywhere the com m ent: “ The whole w orld is w a tch ing (his th ing , the whole w o rld .”

The f irs t speaker was M edgar Evers, fie ld secre tary fo r the M ississipp i N A A C P . S im p ly and e ffe c tive ly lie described the cam­paign o f in tim id a tio n and sub­te rfug e being employed to de­prive M ississipp i Negroes o f th e ir right, to vote.

He lis ted the 20 odd catch- questions on the M ississipp i ap­p lica tion fo rm fo r registered voters. One question, fo r ex­ample, is to g ive “ a reasonable in te rp re ta tio n o f the section o f the cons titu tion o f the State of M ississipp i re ferred to in a p re­vious question.” “ Needless to say,” Evers pointed out, “ i f the vo te r is a Negro, and i f he fa iled to dot an 1 o r cross a T in his essay, the In te rp re ta tion is not considered reasonable.”

l ie to ld o f kn ife -s lash ings and shootings o f Negroes who re fu s ­

ed to g ive up th e ir r ig h t to vote.“ Though the in tim id a tio n is

a lm ost unbearable, there is no silence from ou r speakers,” he said, and drew cheers from tile audience.

Evers attacked the Dem ocratic P a rty , say ing that Dem ocratic Committeemen in M ississipp i

( have received orders to challenge a ll ba llo ts cast by Negroes.

He appealed fo r u n ity among Negroes in con tinu ing the figh t fo r equa lity , fo r increased m em ­bership in the N A A C P , and fo r

i a ll Negroes to reg is te r and vote.“ You have a line congressman

here to show fo r you r e ffo r ts in tha t d irec tion ,” he said re fe rr in g to D iggs. !!<■ drew a laugh when he mentioned D iggs' pa rty a f f i l ­ia tion , adding, “ O f course no! a ll Democrats are the same.”

O f the tigh t to end segrega­tion, Evers asked the audience. “ Shall we slop now ?” The ans­wer was not a shout, it did not shake the ra fte rs , it was a low. determ ined “ N o !” and it came from every th roa t in the ha ll.

Eyes moistened th roughou t the crowd, and the fee lin g o f p ride and power was overw helm ing when Evers ended Ills speech w ith the sim ple statem ent, “ T h is crowd is tremendous. I sha ll go back to M ississipp i and te ll the people there .”

IHGGS IN S U M N E RD iggs’ speech was d ram atic ,

l ie denied that ho had gone to M ississipp i to ga in the na tiona l lim e lig h t fo r personal p o lit ic a l purposes. He stated th a t his presence there gave a fee ling o f pro tection and secu rity to the Negro witnesses and newspaper­men.

"A tre m b lin g Negro photog­rapher met us a t the a irp o rt in Jackson." D iggs said. “ He to ld ■is o f the tense atm osphere in Sumner. When we f irs t a rrived , 'here were not more than five Negroes to be seen around the courthouse. The afte rnoon o f our a rr iv a l Negroes began to come in fro m the cotton patches and

(Continued on page 3)

H a r le m P ro tes ts A c q u it ta l o f T i l l L y n c h e rs

M oiin lcd police and foot-cops, using chain tac tics , t r y to clear a passageway th rough part o f the huge crowd that, overflow ed the m eeting in H a rlem p ro tes ting M iss iss ipp i’s mock tr ia l o f the lynchers o f ) l-year-o ld E m m ett T il l . Hours he fore the meeting began the church was fille d and the aisles packed. About 8,000 stood fo r hours on 7 th Avenue lis ten ing to the speeches broadcast from the m eeting. (P ho to taken by Robert C o ttro l)

Page Two T H E M I L I T A N T Monday, October 3, 1955

The H is to ry O f Jim Crow

---------- By John Thayer ---------

THE STRANGE CAREER OF JIM CROW. By C. Vann Woodward. New York: Oxford University Press, 1955. 155 pp., $2.50.

(continued from last week)

In the previous installment we saw how the author proved what to many will be an astounding fact. Namely, that the present Jim Crow system of total segregation anddiscrimination in the South did®-------------------------------------------------------no t come in to practice o r onto the lawbooks w ith the end o f Reconstruction in 1877.

Negroes continued to vote and hold o ffice in la rge num bers in the South fo r decades a fte r’ Re­construction . The J im Crow laws fo r separate s tree tca r s e a t s , theatres, parks, d r in k in g fo u n ­ta ins, to ile ts , bibles to be sworn on in cou rt, etc., date on ly fro m the las t years o f the 19th Cen­tu ry and the f irs t tw o decades o f th is cen tury.

B IT T E R F R U ITThe ba rba ric J im Crow system

as i t now exists in the South was the b it te r f r u i t o f a defeat in flic te d upon the poor w orkers and fa rm ers — both w h ite and Negro — in the 1890’s.

I t was no t the Negrophobes who took over the re ins o f gov­ernm ent in the Southern states when Reconstruction was de­stroyed bu t the fo rm e r slave­ho ld ing class.

T ra d itio n a lly th e ir social a t­t itu d e to the Negroes d iffe re d fro m th a t o f the poor whites. The la tte r saw in the freedmen economic com petitors. The upper class w hites had no such fea r. M oreover, they pretended an a t­titu d e o f noblesse oblige, an a r is ­toc ra tic ob liga tion to be “ k in d to in fe r io rs ." In fa c t they hoped to use the N egro vote to coun­terbalance the vote o f the poor whites.

T h is exp la ins such seeming anomalies as the fa c t th a t Gen­era l Wade H am pton, who “ re ­deemed” South C aro lina fro m Reconstruction, appointed a t least 86 Negroes to office d u rin g his ad m in is tra tion and th a t Negro candidates ran on the Dem ocra­t ic tic k e t in several South Caro­lin a counties.

Though the Dem ocratic wooing o f the N egro voters in the E ig h tie s did not b rin g the Negroes over in a mass to tha t p a rty , i t d id s p lit th e ir vote, lu ll them and cause the decline o f the Southern Republican P a rty which had led Reconstruction.

P O P U LIS TSI t was a t th is po in t th a t the

P opu lis t m ovem ent — th a t ra d i­cal movem ent o f the fa rm ers which a ll students o f U.S. h is ­to ry know about in its W estern phase — h it the South.

The Southern P opu lis ts made no pretenses o f pa terna lism to ­w ard the Negro. They approach­ed him on the basis o f common se lf-in te res t. I t was an approach tow ard rac ia l equa lity based on poverty and the s trugg le against those who im poverished both w h ite and Negro.

Tom W atson, p rin c ip a l Popu­lis t leader to ld the tw o races: “ You are made to hate each o ther because upon th a t hatred is rested the keystone o f the arch o f financia l despotism which enslaves you both. . . the co lo r­ed tenant is in the same boat w ith the w h ite tenant, the co lor­ed laborer w ith the w h ite la bo r­er. . . the accident o f color can make no d iffe rence in the in te r ­ests o f fa rm ers , croppers and laborers.” He prom ised Negroes th a t “ i f you stand up fo r you r r ig h ts and you r manhood, i f you stand shoulder to shoulder w ith us in th is f ig h t” the People’s P a rty w i l l “ w ipe o u t the color line and p u t every man on his c itizensh ip irrespective o f color.”

The Populists won increasing N egro support. Negroes were elected to top com m ittees o f th is rad ica l a g ra ria n p a rty , n o t as w indow dressing bu t as co-lead­ers. F rom to]) to bottom in the p a r ty o rgan iza tion there develop­ed rea l in te g ra tion .

W oodward re la tes: “ B lack and w h ite cam paigners spoke from the same p la tfo rm to audiences o f both races, and both had th e ir places on o ffic ia l p a rty tickets. P opu lis t sh e riffs saw to i t th a t Negroes appeared fo r ju r y d u ty ; and P opu lis t ed itors sought out achievements o f Negroes to pra ise in th e ir colum ns."

The Southern ru lin g class was te rrifie d as th is movement threatened to take over p o litica l contro l o f the whole South. In its desperation to re ta in eco­nomic and p o lit ic a l dominance i t resorted to a ll the fraud , v io ­lence and b ribe ry th a t had been used so successfully to defeat Reconstruction. The a ltitu d e o f noblesse ob lige tow ard the Negro people was junked as soon as it was seen th a t racism was the on ly weapon to de feat Populism . The aris tocra ts a llied themselves w ith the most v io len t Negro- haters among the poor whites.

The Populists perform ed heroic fea ts in the ensuing ba ttle . When lyn ch in g was a t its he igh t in Georgia, W atson led his p a rty in a cam paign to “ make lynch law odious to the people." When a Negro P opu lis t who had made 63 speeches fo r W atson in the Georgia cam paign was th rea ten ­ed w ith lynch ing , tw o thousand arm ed w h ite fa rm ers , some o f whom rode a ll n ig h t, came to h is defense and guarded h im fo r two n igh ts u n t il the danger had passed.

T H E D E F E A TB u t P opu lis t v ic to ries at the

po lls m et w ith ba llo t-box s tu f f ­ing. A s the hope Populism had aroused in the poor w h ites faded, the vacuum le f t was fille d w ith the hate the subsidized rac is ts were so assiduously spreading.

Then the tr iu m p h a n t Southern ru lin g class d isfranch ised the Negroes le s t the specter o f Negro and poor w h ite u n ity ever rise again. W ith th is defeat o f the w orkers and poor fa rm ers in the South came the to ta l J im Crow system and the maze o f sup po rting leg is la tion th a t we know today. I t is the hideous tombstone o f a defeated p o litica l revo lu tion .

This book ends w ith an ac­count o f the ga ins made by the N egro people in the South since the m id -T h irtie s . The au thor calls th is the New Reconstruc­tion and im plies, w ith o u t demon­s tra tion , a steady, g ra du a lis tic so lu tion in the fu tu re . W h ile many im p o rta n t fac ts are b rough t ou t in h is descrip tion and analysis o f the changed s it ­ua tion in the South, the re is one g la r in g om ission. T h is is a fa ilu re to assess the im pact o f the rise o f the CIO and its organ iza tion o f m illio n s o f N egro w orkers.

W oodward, a m a te ria lis t o f the Beard school, is the leading a u th o rity on the South in the period between Reconstruction and the tu rn o f the cen tury . T h is book, lik e his others, w i l l be o f exceptiona lly great value to p a r­tic ip an ts in the N egro s trugg le and to students o f Am erican h is to ry .

PIONEER PAMPHLETSOn the Negro Struggle

The Struggle for Negro Equality, 3rd ed.,1945 .................................................... 48 pp. .10By John Saunders and A lbert Parker

Jim Crow Murder of Mr. and Mrs. HarryT. Moore, 1952 ................................... 32 pp. .10By George Breitman

Letter to American Negroes, 1948 .......... 16 pp. .15By Wm. E. Bohannon

♦Practical Program to K ill Jim Crow, 1945 24 pp. .25By Charles Jackson

♦Vigilante Terror in Fontana, 1946 ....... 20 pp. .25By M yra Tanner Weiss

♦Negroes March on Washington, 1941 .... 16 pp. .25By A lbert Parker

Racial Terror at Trumbull Park, Chicago.... 15 pp. .10By Howard Mayhew

(Titles marked ♦ are out-of-print; a few copies «till available at the prices listed.)

Order fromPIONEER PUBLISHERS

116 University Place New York 3, N .Y .

Reuther Apologizes For Dismal Record of Democratic Congress

By Henry Kemp 2>One o f the m a jo r problems con­

fro n tin g A F L President George Meany and CTO President W a lte r Reuther in th e ir ro le as labor alesmen fo r the Dem ocratic pa rty

is the record o f the Dem ocratic m a jo rity in the f ir s t session o f the 84th Congress. The CIO has ju s t published a pam phlet, “ Re­port on Congress: ’55,” which attem pts to s k ir t around and gloss over tha t problem.

Reuther is he ll-ben t on c lin g ­ing to the ta i l o f the Dem ocratic donkey, no m a tte r how bad its record. F o r th a t reason his .preface to th is report, as well as the re p o rt its e lf, s tra ins a g;ut to present th a t record in the best possible l ig h t. On the basis o f the rep o rt, Reuither draws up w hat he considers to be a balance sheet o f the positive and negative side o f the record.

“ A C C O M P LIS H M E N T S ”He lis ts fo u r po in ts o f accom­

p lishm ent: (1) “ The m in im um wage law was raised to $1.00 an hour.” (2) “ B iip a rtis a n support fo r the essential elements o f a constructive fo re ign p o licy has been restored.” (3) The A d ­m in is tra tio n 's g ive-aw ay program to B ig Business “ has been slowed down.” (4 ) “ The ev ils o f M c- C arthy ism . . . have been e lim in a t­ed as a serious th re a t to our free in s titu tio n s .”

On the m inus side o f the ledger are found these cruc ia l issues:(1) “ The c iv il r ig h ts program o f d ie Congress has been to ta lly b lank.” (2) “ A f i r s t step has been taken to add $800,000,000 to the b ills o f urban consumers o f na tu ra l gas.” (3) “ No school con­s truc tion p rogram was enacted, despite the desperate and g ro w ­in g need o f the na tion ’s ch ildren fo r school rooms and fo r well- pa id and w e ll-tra ine d teachers.” (4) “ The tax load on low and m iddle - income fam ilies has not been eased and they s t i l l ca rry an u n fa ir po rtion o f the na tion 's tax load.” (5) “ The infam ous T a ft-H a rt le y A c t has remained unchanged; and no step has been taken, through am ending the T a ft-H a r t le y A ct, to ha lt the drive by reactionary em ployers fo r an ti-un ion laws in the various states.”

D e m o c ra tic P a r ty L a b o r Salesm en

President W alter Reuther ( le ft) of the C IO is shown in­troducing A F L President George Meany to Cleveland Auto Workers convention. Top labor officials see the coming merger of labor as a means to strengthen their policy of supporting the Big Business owned Democratic Party, but the experience of working people every day shows the fu tility and worthlessness of this policy.

The rep o rt its e lf lis ts o ther “ fa ilu re s ” th a t are to be “ re ­g re tted .” B u t Reuther’s score sheet, taken by its e lf, is a te rrib le ind ic tm ent, no t m erely o f the Dem ocratic P a rty , but o f the po litica l course th a t has been foisted on the union movement by its leaders.

Take only one po in t in the “ fa ilu re ’’ scoreboard— the “ b la n k ” on c iv il r ig h ts . F i l l in the “ b lank” and w hat do we ge t? F o r years libe ra l N o rthe rn Senators had promised to make a f ig h t on the Senate’s opening day to change ru le 22 which pe rm its f ilib u s te r­ing.

When the opening day o f the 84th Congress came, no t on ly did the libe ra l Senators be tray th e ir promises to the Negro people and

to the labor movement to make a f ig h t — they fa iled even to in ­troduce a proposal to change Senate Rule 22. Th is se ll-ou t on the very f i r s t day o f Congress sealed the doom o f any c iv il r ig h ts leg is la tion not on ly fo r 1955 but fo r next year as well.

Th is kind o f active treachery is w ha t Reuther ca lls a “ d is ­appo in ting fa ilu re ” and a “ b lank.”

W hat do the “ accom plishm ents’ ’ consist o f? The Dem ocrats passed a $1.00 an hour m in im um wage law. Leave aside the fa c t th a t du rin g the election campaign they pledged to support labo r’s demand fo r a $1.25 m in im um . The CIO its e lf has proven th a t in v iew of increased liv in g costs i t would be necessary to establish a $1.06 m in im um — ju s t to m a in ta in the

. . . Protest Mississippi Verdict(C ontinued fro m page 1)

a ll these mass m eetings was the m an ifes t desire o f the audiences fo r concrete proposals fo r action. A n y and a ll proposals fo r ac­tion were w ild ly applauded. Some o f these proposals were fo r a M arch on M ississipp i, a M arch on W ashington, etc. The p rin c i­pal N egro leaders, however, tr ied to tone these down.

Instead th e ir proposals were on the line o f those made by N A A C P head Roy W ilk in s to the g reat H arlem m eeting— “ Be a precinct leader, o r go see him and te ll him you w ant to see tha t the Dem ocratic P a rty gets th a t mess cleaned up in M is ­sissippi.” W h ile such proposals received po lite applause, they evoked no rea l enthusiasm.

The presence o f A . P h ilip Randolph on the p la tfo rm a t the H arlem m eeting led the chairm an, Rev. David L. L ico r-

Till Lynch Racists Smear NAACP

Part of the smokescreen of lies with which Mississppi of­ficials and the white-suprem­acist press have tried to becloud the T ill lynching is the fantastic concoction that the mutilated body fished out of the Tallahatchie river was put there by the N A A C P to give bad publicity to Missis­sippi’s “good” race relations. In summing up for the lynch­ers, Defense Attorney W hitten declared that a sinister outside group like the N A A C P could have planted young T il l ’s ring on the mutilated body found in the river. This is an old trick. As old as a pursued crook shouting “stop th ief.” Many strikebreaking corpora­tions that have had strike leaders beaten and shot declare that the union has done the beating and shooting to get publicity. Several months be­fore Stalin's GPU assassinated Leon Trotsky, it staged an un­successful machinegun attack on his home in the course of which it kidnaped and mur­dered one of Trotsky’s young followers. The Stalinist press tried to cover up by shouting Trotsky had staged the whole thing himself to gain public s y m p a t h y . The Mississippi lynchers and their defenders are following the same tactic. Guilty of the fiendish child murder, they try to blame the victims — the Negro people and their leading organization, the N A A C P.

ish, to ca ll on h im to lead a M arch on M ississipp i and others to call out fo r a M arch on W ashington. I t was Randolph’s th re a t a t the beg inn ing o f W orld W ar I I o f a M arch on W ash ing ­ton to demand job eq ua lity th a t frigh tened the Roosevelt adm in­is tra tio n in to issu ing the FEPC order. T h is tim e, however, Ran­dolph made no re p ly to the u rg - ings to organize another such action.

R E S O LU TIO N S PASSEDThe New Y o rk mass m eeting

unan im ously passed two reso lu­tions th a t were presented to it . F irs t was the demand fo r a special session o f Congress c a ll­ed to pass an a n ti- lyn ch in g law in v iew o f the rev iva l o f lynch law in the South.

Second was a demand th a t U.S. A tto rn e y General B row nell im m edia te ly i n v e s t i g a t e the whereabouts and physica l w e ll­being o f two N egro witnesses to T i l l ’s m urder who were repeated­ly re fe rred to in testim ony a t the t r ia l , b u t were never called. They have disappeared and the reso lu tion expressed a la rm fo r th e ir safe ty.

D r. T. M. H ow ard , m il ita n tN egro leader o f Mound Bayou, M ississipp i, gave a standing- room -on ly m eeting in B a ltim o re some in fo rm a tio n about Leroy C ollins, one o f the m iss ing w it ­nesses. Co llins, an em ploye o f one o f the lynchers, had been ordered to wash the blood o f f the tru c k used to c a rry 14-year- old E m m e tt T i l l ’s to rtu re d body from the lynch scene to therive r.

Collins disappeared before the tr ia l. He was secre tly im p ris ­oned in the Charleston, Miss., ja i l to prevent his te s tify in g . W here he is now is not known. A no ther po ten tia l w itness against the lynchers vanished before the t r ia l and has not been heardfrom since.

D E A T H T H R E A TMoses W rig h t was given a

death th re a t by the lynchers the n ig h t they entered his home and dragged o f f h is 14-year-old nephew. M ilam om inously asked the tenan t fa rm e r how old he was, and was answered, “ I am 64.” M ilam then w arned: “ Y ou ’l l never live to be 65 i f you te ll w ha t you saw here to n ig h t.”

A n o th e r w itness, M rs. A m an­da B rad ley (no re la tio n to T i l l ’s m other, M rs. M am ie B rad ley) refused o ffe rs to help her out o f the state a f te r the t r ia l and w ent • back to the p lan ta tion on which she lives and works. L a te r th a t n ig h t she fle d to Mound Bayou, the a ll-N e g ro tow n, w h ich

August 13 LynchingLam ar Sm ith, 63 - year - old

Negro fa rm e r, was shot to death by three w h ite men on the 'courthouse lawn in Brook- haven, M iss iss ipp i, fo r “ med­d lin g in p o litic s .” There were 39 to 40 eyewitnesses standing w ith in 30 fee t o f S m ith and his lynchers. Y e t the grand ju ry was unable to “ f in d ” one w itness and fa iled to in d ic t e ithe r fo r m urder o r m an­slaughter. Th is lynch ing as well as the Lee and T il l lynch- ings have been “ looked in to ” by the F B I as a resu lt o f N A A C P demands. M il ita n t leader o f the a ll-N e g ro tow n o f Mound Bayou, M iss iss ipp i, D r. T. M. H oward, who produced fiv e prosecution witnesses fo r the T il l t r ia l , recen tly said o f these F B I investiga tions: “ I t is g e ttin g to be a strange th in g th a t the F B I can never fin d ou t who the k i l le r is when a colored m an is k illed in the South.”

May 7 LynchingReverend George \V. Lee,

Negro leader in Belzoni, M is­sissippi, who refused to be in­timidated by threats from the W hite Citizens Councils into removing his name from the voting registration list, was shot to death by a group of white supremacists. Belzoni o f­ficials at first tried to cover up Lee’s murder by listing it as a death in an auto accident. When forced by widespread publicity in the Negro and labor press to admit Lee was m u r d e r e d , the authorities claimed they had no clues (o the murderers. Negro w it­nesses to the crime fled Mississippi in fear of their lives. The N A A C P located them and relayed their testi­mony to the F B I. Though the identity of the lynchers is an open secret in Belzoni, and though the F B I has the in­formation, no steps have been taken to punish them.

"Times That Try Men’s Souls’’

By Harry Ring-

“ These are times that try men’s souls,” dolefully declared the liberal N. Y. Post on Sept. 23, as it reported that the author of that famed quotation, Tom Paine, isnow too hot to handle in Rhode 1--------------------------------------------------------Island.

M ayor Reynolds o f Providence, R.I., has re jected the o ffe r o f a statue o f one o f the m ost honor­ed fa the rs o f the A m erican Re­public. “ I t is my feeling-,” said the m ayor, “ tha t Thomas Paine was — and s t i l l rem ains — so con trovers ia l a cha racter th a t c ity sponsorship o f a m em oria l is out o f the question a t th is tim e.”

On the basis o f w h a t they tau gh t me in pub lic school about Tom Paine, I fe l t th a t maybe the Post had a p o in t in fee lin g th a t M ayo r Reynolds was ca rry ing the w itch -hu n t to a r id ic u ­lous extrem e in ve to ing the statue. A bou t a ll we were ta u g h t about Paine was tha t he had been one o f the leaders o f the A m erican R evolu tion and th a t he had w r it te n a num ber o f works w ith such reasonable tit le s as Common Sense, The R igh ts o f Man, and The Age o f Reason.

B u t the m ayo r’s contention th a t Paine not on ly is b u t also was a con trovers ia l figu re got me to look a b it deeper in to the question. 1 looked back to an a rtic le w r itte n about Tom Paine by Jean Simon in the M arch- A p r il, 1952, issue o f the M a rx ­is t m agazine F ou rth In te rn a tio n ­al. W h a t I read convinced me tha t fro m the v iew po in t o f those who champion today’s ro tt in g ca p ita lis t system o f exp lo ita tion and in jus tice there is ce rta in ly log ic to the m ayo r’s stand.

Tom Paine was a revo lu tion is t whose deeds and w r it in g would ce rta in ly put h im h igh on the “ subversive” lis t o f today’s w itch -hun te rs . And the fa c t is tha t M ayo r Reynold’s slam at Paine is ju s t one sm all p a r t o f a long record o f v io len t a ttacks on tha t heroic figu re th a t began du ring his life tim e and did not end w ith h is death.

Tom Paine was not one of the silk stockinged leaders of the revolution. He came from the ranks of the people. He expres­sed their aspirations and spoke their language with powerful j; eloquence.

H is pam phlet, Common Sense, was a f la m in g ca ll to action th a t played a m a jo r ro le in m ob iliz ­in g the Am erican people fo r the figh t. Published Jan. 10, 1776, i t fo r the f ir s t tim e spelled out a fu lly rounded and conscious revo­lu tio n a ry program . I ts enormous

e ffe c t is indicated by the fa c t th a t over 300,000 copies were sold a t a tim e when the popula­tion was less than three m illio n .

A nd he did n o t confine his s trugg le against the reactionary m onarch is t system to Am erican soil. A f te r the A m erican v ic ­tories ho plunged in to the s tru g ­gles o f the E ng lish and French masses against th e ir ty ra n ts . I t was in Eng land in 1791 th a t he expressed his basic v ie w po in t by toa s ting ‘ The Revolu tion o f the W orld .”

Hounded fro m both these coun­tries , he re turned to A m erica to find h is s t i l l consis ten tly revo lu ­tio n a ry view qu ite unpopu lar w ith the now conservative ru le rs o f the coun try . D u ring his la s t days in the coun try he helped to found ho suffe red constant ha r- rassment. The cam paign aga inst him reached its c lim ax when he was denied the r ig h t to vote in N ew Rochelle, N . Y. on the ground th a t he — a revo lu tiona ry c it i ­zen o f the w orld — was an a lien !

Paine’s tire less fig h t fo r every progressive cause, his savage a t­tacks on every reac tiona ry in ­s titu tio n , le f t its m ark on the consciousness o f the ru le rs of A m erica and th e ir spokesmen. Theodore Roosevelt, fo r example, called h im a “ f ilth y l i t t le athe­is t.” When first proposed, his name was voted down for the Hall of Fame. In 1912 the F a ir­mont Park Commission in Phila­delphia gave Providence its pre­cedent by also refusing author­ization for the erection of a statue of Tom Paine.

Tom Paine never whim pered a t the attacks leveled aga inst h im by the reactionaries. He stood tip and fo u g h t to e lim ina te them from the social scene.

Those who today s im p ly s it and bemoan the assault o f re ­action would do w e ll to consider a b it more o f w ha t Tom Paine to ld the em battled revo lu tiona ry troops:

“These are times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier md the sunshine patriot will, in

this crisis, shrink from the ser­vice of his country; but. he that stands it N O W deserves the love and thanks of all men and wo­men. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”

the tria l walked up to the Negro press table and said, “ Hello, n— rs.” Mrs. Bradley, when on the stand, was addressed by prosecution and defense a tto r­neys alike as “Mamie” since the Jim Crow code does not permit “courtesy” titles, such as “ Mrs.” to Negroes.

The ju ry foreman’s sneering comment on the heart-rending testimony of Mrs. Bradley about the Identification of her son’s broken body was: “ I f she had tried a little harder, she might have got out a tear.”

The lynchers, M ilam and B ry­ant, on the contrary, were treat­ed with deference and respect. The white supremacists raised a defense fund for them. A ll the lawyers in the area volunteered to serve on their defense. They were not guarded and never were handcuffed. They were a l­lowed to play with their children in the courtroom. They were given the run of the judge’s per­sonal quarters in the coui-t for their own convenience. Admii’ers came up and shook their hands. A fte r 67 minutes of discussion the ju ry unanimously endorsed thoir crime.

The tremendous anger of the Negro people and the horror of organized labor over the T ill lynch case must not be allowed to dissipate without achievement. I t must be channeled into a pro­gram that w ill smash the whole brutal, corrupt Jim Crow sys­tem.

Ind ign a tio n and anger a t the acq u itta l in M iss iss ipp i o f the m urderers o f young E m m ett T il l

is run n ing high th roughou t the country. Several c o r r e spondetnts have reported the events in th e ir c ities wh ich are p rin ted elsewhere in th is issue. The lite ra tu re agents te ll us w h a t e f­fe c t these events had on the sales.

John Tabor o f New Y o rk says: “ A pro test m eeting on the T il l m urder was held in H arlem by the S leeping Car P orte rs Union. The M il i ta n t was sold so fa s t i t was hard to keep up w ith it . The f irs t batch o f 185 were sold h i tw en ty m inutes. One o f our best .pluggers, Johnny Ajdams, sold 147 papers, which is a record fo r recent tim es. Tw elve sales people sold a to ta l o f 490 papers. The papers seemed to m e lt out o f ou r arms. W e are p lann ing another m ob iliza tion next week w ith a thousand papers.”

Chicago rep o rts : “ We haven’t reported our M il ita n t sales fo r a w h ile , b u t business goes on as usual. The la s t three week-ends have been especia lly notable. M arge Rains and Lou G riffin

sold sixteen papers at a union meeting, Jackie Booth and Dot Mack sold eighteen M ilita n ts and three T ru m b u ll P ark pam phlets at an open a ir 'Forum ; Ed L a r ­sen and L a r ry Haines sold tw en­ty papers and six “ S trugg le fo r Negro E q u a lity ” pam phlets a t a you th m eeting o f the N a tion a l Association fo r the Advancem ent o f Colored People. The next week 72 M ilita n ts were sold a t various po in ts in the c ity . T h is week we sold 220 M ilita n ts and tw en ty pam phlets a t the N A A C P Protest R a lly on the E m m ett T il l m urder. F o rtu n a te ly we had extra papers, b u t we could have sold 300 m ore i f we had them ."

The rep o rt fro m D e tro it p a r­a lle ls the re p o rt fro m New Y o rk . A llen W in te rs w rite s : “ Three salesmen took the cu rre n t M i l i ­ta n t to sell a t the N A A C P meet­in g called to demand jus tice in the E m m ett T i l l case. The 31 papers they took w ith them were sold in about five m inutes, so they w ent back fo r more. Tom Johnson, Bob H im m e ll and S herry Cohen sold a to ta l o f n in e ty papers as w e ll as 49 copies o f “ The S trugg le fo r Negro E qua l­ity . ” They did not have to “ se ll” the paper— they s im p ly held i t up and people lined up to buy. No o ther po litica l group sold or d is tribu te d an y th in g there .”

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serves as a sta tion on the mod­ern Underground R a ilw ay. Re­po rts are th a t a group o f w h ite suprem acists were out looking fo r her.

She then decided to go N o rth w ith Congressman D iggs o f De­tro it . W illie Reed, an 18-year- old Negro youth also accepted D iggs ’ o f fe r o f asylum in D e­tro it . Reed had tes tified to hear­in g sounds o f bea ting and scream ing com ing fro m the barn where young T il l was murdered and o f seeing the lynchers there, one o f them w earing a p is to l.

No m atter how much evidence was put onto the court record, the lynchers were never in dan­ger of punishment. A recent sur­vey shows that in the 18 Delta counties of Mississippi, white people get heavier punishment for killing a deer out of season than they do for murdering a Negro.

The whole t r ia l demonstrated the viciousness o f the J im Crow system and the im p o ss ib ility o f ju s tice in the present-day South. Negroes in the county, where the tr ia l took place, outnum ber wh ites three to one. Y e t no Negroes are allowed to vote in T a llahatch ie County. Since the ju r y panel is taken fro m the lis t o f reg is tered voters, a ll ju r ­ies are “ l i ly w h ite .”

AB USE A N D IN S U L TA t the t r ia l, segregation was

iron-clad. Even a U.S. Congress­man was forced to s it in the J im Crow section. O ffic ia ls a t

jisarae purchasing power th a t was provided by the 75-eent m in im um when i t was established in 1949. T h a t means th a t the rea l m in i­mum is now six-cents-an-hour less than i t was in 1949.

The a rgum en t tha t the Demo­crats “ slowed down” the g ive ­away p rogram would be more im ­pressive i f i t were not fo r the scandalous record o f the “ cost- plus con tracts,” “ do lla r-a -ye a r” men, the “ deep freezes” and “ m in k coats” o f the Roosevelt and T rum an adm in is tra tions.

FO R E IG N P O LIC YP o in tin g w ith pride to the “ b i­

pa rtisa n ” fo re ign po licy is p rob­ab ly the m ost sham eful p a rt of the report.

I t was th is same b i-pa rtisan fo re ign po licy tha t hurled an un­w illin g Am erican people in to the Korean w ar. I t armed and f i ­nanced the “ d ir ty w a r” o f the French im p e ria lis ts against the Indo-Chinese people. I t insta lled an an ti- la b o r m il ita ry d ic ta to r­ship in Guatemala. I t kep t Franco and a host o f o the r fo u l reac­tionaries in power th roughou t the w orld . And despite the present “ peace” maneuvers, which a rc but a b re a th ing spell, Am erican b i­pa rtisan fo re ign po licy is stock­p ilin g the H-bombs th a t threaten w orld c iv iliza tio n .

Perhaps the most far-fetched of Reuther’s claims is that the Democrats stopped McCarthyism. Where could he have been during the 83rd Congress when the Democrats made international spectacles of themselves by crawl­ing before McCarthy in slobbering fear? Where was he when the Democrats wound up that session with a red-baiting orgy to “out­flank” McCarthy that culminated with the leading liberal Demo­crats ramming through the police- state Humphrey - Butler Com­munist Control Act of 1954?

Reuther concludes th a t, ‘‘ I t is to be hoped th a t the 84th Con­gress, d u rin g its second session, w ill heed the people’s voice and enact a program responsive to the people’s good.” B u t out o f his own mouth comes the fac ts th a t prove th a t the on ly real hope fo r labor is to break w ith the Demo­crats and bu ild its own inde­pendent pa rty .

. . . Fighting Negro-Labor Alliance(Continued from page 1)

and maintaining white supremacy? And don’t they know that in the one-party South if the act of voting means anything at all it means the right to participate in Democratic primaries? And hasn’t anyone told them that if a Negro in Mississippi persists in trying to exercise this right he risks being lynched? Where have they been all their lives? These are truths with which every school child is familiar.

I f the labor leaders are unaware of the political problem of the Negro in the South, they can scarcely be ignorant of the problems the unions face in organizing a South which is becoming increasingly in­dustrialized. The “ solid South” is today the citadel of the open shop. The “ run­away shop” has become a union problem of prime importance. Union organizers are terrorized, beaten and sometimes mur­dered. The recent action of a Tennessee mayor is symbolic of the attitude of the “ South” toward labor unionism. This good Democrat armed his cops with machine guns and ordered them to “ shoot to k ill” peaceful pickets on strike against the Southern Bell Telephone Company.

A series of articles on the South have recently appeared in the New York Herald- Tribune written by special correspondent Homer Bigart. Writing on Mississippi, Bigart disclosed that the White Citizens Councils maintain a vigilant watch against what they dub “ subversion.” “ Down here,” declared Bigart, “ subversion equals integration.” He could well have added, that “ down here” subversion also equals union organization which the good Demo­crats of the White Citizens Councils are determined to “ keep in its place.”

It is true that the Republican party, the favorite party of Big Business, is no better and the Negro people would be ill advised to seek any solution to their problems in that direction. But are these the. only real alternatives, either Republican or Demo­crat ? I f so, the struggle would be hopeless indeed! We are told, of course, that the Democratic party of the South is funda­

mentally different from the same party of the North, and the word Dixiecrat is coined to indicate this difference. But the differences that exist are surface d if­ferences which serve to conceal but do not alter the essential identity.

The so-called liberal Democrats of the North, the self-styled “ friends” of labor and the Negro people, are a gang of patent frauds. Admitting their impotence as a minority in Congress, they have capitulat­ed without a figh t to the Southern Bourbons and have tried to cover their cowardice on every important issue with a Niagara of insipid rhetoric. Both the Northern and Southern Democratic poli- tfcians serve the same master, each in their own way.

The struggle against the Jim Crow system and for full equality is essentially a political struggle — that much is true. But that is not the end all and be all of wisdom, as the union leaders preach. They have it in their power to initiate the action that can stay the hand of “Judge Lynch” and lead the labor movement and the Ne­gro people, up the road of emancipation. They need only say, in labor’s authentic voice, speaking loud enough and clear enough for all to hear: We will no longer besmirch the name of the American labor movement by supporting a political party that is directly responsible for perpetrat­ing such fiendish crimes as the wanton murder of young Emmett Till. From this day forth, labor must break with the Democratic party and launch its own inde­pendent political party based on the unions and finding its staunch allies in the Negro people and all those who suffer persecu­tion and degradation under this political system.

Those are the words that the Negro people are waiting for and which they will welcome with great acclaim. I f the present leaders of labor are unable or unwilling to utter them, it will be incumbent on the ranks to find new leaders who will — for the very existence of the organized work­ing class depends upon it.

Working Class Candidates for 1956The decision of the National Committee

of the Socialist Workers Party to enter the 1956 presidential election campaign came at a time when the country was rife with speculation about the affect on the political scene of Eisenhower’s heart attack.

For that section of the American capi­talist class that benefited most from the lavish bounty of the Eisenhower Repub­lican administration the news of the presi­dent’s illness loomed as a political calamity of the firs t order. Some were so tem­porarily bereft that they threw large blocks of stock into Wall Street depress­ing the market in what will go down into history as the Eisenhower stock-market crash.

The Big Boys recovered rapidly enough, however, to pocket a handsome profit on the subsequent rise in the market, with no one hurt much except the little suckers shaken out by “ operation panic.”

The Republicans were sad — they had counted on the Eisenhower popularity to carry them to victory in 1956.

The Democrats were elated — they had practically abdicated as an opposition party and conceded the victory of Eisen­hower i f he chose to run again.

Authoritative spokesmen for the capi­talist ruling class hastened to reassure the “ business community” that regardless of the outcome, the so-called “ free enter­prise” system would persevere.

All of which serves to underline the point made at the recently concluded SWP National Committee meeting by presi­dential candidate Farrell Dobbs, that the party must “ patiently explain” that the working people can solve none of their basic problems through the capitalist poli­tical parties.

The main task of the Socialist Workers Party in the 1956 campaign, said Dobbs, is to bring once again to the working peo­ple of this country the message of social­ism as the only road to peace, security and prosperity for all. And to achieve this goal, the working people “ must build their own independent political party and create a workers and farmers government.”

Crisis of Education SystemThere is widespread alarm over the

crisis in the educational system. This year 700,000 children will be deprived of fu ll­time schooling. The teacher shortage grows steadily. Science and mathematics courses have been dropped from 1,500 high schools for lack of teachers.

The country needs at least $14 billion for new schools — merely to keep pace with the growth of the student body. The scope of the problem is such that only a vast federally-financed program could even begin to meet it. Every day new voices are added to the demand that a federal program be enacted.

In answer to this pressure the govern­ment has called for a series of regional conferences to precede a national White House conference on education on Nov. 28. This was undoubtedly called with an eye to some face-saving device for the 1956 elections since all attempts to pass an aid bill in Congress have failed.

One such regional conference on educa­tion took place Sept. 19 in New York City. Here are some of the keynote remarks by the chairman of the conference, Kenneth C. Royall:

“ I am sure that today thousands are streaming into college not actually for educational purposes but for social or athletic or other purposes which bear little relation to real education.”

Having thus assigned the low level of interest in the academic purposes of col­lege to the bad motives of the students, Royall goes on to propose that we should

“ cut the cloth of the educational garment” to f i t the limited school budgets: “ We should cut our specifications for less essential functions of the schools,” he argued. He wound up his tirade with the snide question: “ Are the schools acting as baby sitters?”

I t is to the credit of the educators present that they rose in numbers to refute the chairman. In addition they forced the holding of a session devoted to the question of federal aid to education, a point which had not been included on the agenda.

Who is this Kenneth C. Royall? He is a former general in the U.S. Army, he served as Secretary of War under Truman and in that office he naturally did not hesitate to recommend billions of dollars for military expenditures. Yet he has the gall to propose lim iting the school program to a level even below its present critically inadequate condition.

The pauperization of the schools stands out even more starkly against the back­ground of the announcement that the De­fense Department is struggling to pare its expenditures to a measly $33 billion in order to balance the budget for the 1956 election. In the mad scramble for election- year “ economies” an even bigger squeeze will be made on appropriations to educa­tion.

All we can expect from the capitalist politicians is a continuation of the policy of billions for war preparations and peanuts for education and welfare.

T H E M I L I T A N T •—- Page Three

By Art SharonThe tenth session o f the Gen­

era l Assembly o f the U n ited N a ­tions opened th is week and fo r those who had the idea tha t th ings since Geneva were going to be d iffe re n t, both the words and the deeds o f the f ir s t week have made i t c lear tha t no th ing has rea lly changed. The U N rem ains what i t has been from the begin­n ing — an arena o f s trugg le between W estern im peria lism and the Soviet bloc, w ith the contro l f irm ly in the hands o f the im ­peria lis ts.

One change, however, m ust be noted. The reader can judge its w e igh t. The choice o f language, the fac ia l expressions and the general deportm ent o f the two m ain antagonists, Du lles o f W ash­ington and M olotov o f Moscow, became m ore restra ined, genia l and “ correct.’’ A nd to be sure we can expect a busy social season as the upper crust socialites vie

UN Stifles Voice of the Colonial People

Japanese P ro te s t A i r R u n w a y

Protests against a new runway planned by the U.S. A ir Force mounted to a c lim ax in Sunakawa, Japan, as local police clashed w ith residents who resisted a ttem pts o f government w orkers to survey land to be used fo r an a ir fie ld extension. The Japanese have been s tag ing sitdown s trikes and th ro w in g rocks at A m erican servicemen a t the base.

. . . SWP Plenum Meets(Continued from page 1)

vanguard p a rty fo r leadership o f the fu tu re mass rad ica liza - tion ,” he concluded.

C H A N G E IN W O R LDThe plenum o f the N a tiona l

Com m ittee o f the SW P devoted a la rge p a r t o f its tim e to in i t ­ia tin g a discussion hav ing as its a im the “ task o f so lv ing new problems in a new h is to ric pe r­iod.” The basic prem ise o f the discussion was the tremendous changes th a t have taken place in the w o rld since the end o f the war.

In the period o f a sing le dec­ade, fro m the explosion o f the f irs t atom-bom b over H irosh im a in A ug ust 1945 to date, there have occurred g ig a n tic upheav­als b r in g in g in th e ir t ra in deci­sive changes in the re la tionsh ip o f forces on a w orld scale: be­tween the ca p ita lis t and non- ca p ita lis t na tions; between cap­ita l is t im peria lism and the co l­onial w o rld ; in Europe, A fr ic a , the Am ericas and Asia.

A m erican im p e ria lism em erg­ed from the w a r as the dom inant ca p ita lis t w o rld power. The task o f m a in ta in in g cap ita lism as a w orld system devolved p r im a r­ily upon the ru lin g class in the U n ited States. E ve ry trem or, every shock, every explosion any­where in the w orld had its im ­mediate reverbera tion in th is country.

E ve ry serious problem in the w o rld a t once becomes an A m e r­ican problem , fro m the s trugg le o f the w o rkers and peasants o f Indo-China aga inst the French colon ia l oppressor's to the W a ll S tree t financed counter-revo lu­tion in Guatemala. And, o f a ll the gr eat upheavals ta k in g place in the w o rld in the past ten year's, the greatest was the v ic ­to rious social revo lu tion in China.

o f the U.S., Eng lish, French and Dutch delegations, p lus the stooge votes they con tro l, ba.r the way.

C H IN A E X C L U D E DThe very f i r s t order o f business

a fte r the election o f the chairm an, was the pe rfu n c to ry vo tin g down o f the reso lution to seat China. The one-tim e sleeping g ia n t o f the East, now a g rea t power by v irtu e o f a revo lu tion th a t swept out im p e ria lis t con tro l and ca p ita lis t rule, w ill not be allowed to s it at the council tables o f the U N .

The butchers and hangmen o f the colonial peoples declared — w ith s tra ig h t faces — tha t China was unacceptable because i t be­lieved in violence! The U.S. dele­ga tion presented the reso lu tion b a rr in g China, postponing the issue fo r another year. T h is give? W ashington a trum p card in its fu tu re ba rga in ing sessions w ith Mao.

N e x t in o lde r was the a ttem pt o f the Greek delegation to b rin g the issue o f Cyprus to the A s­sembly f lo o r. The C yprio ts b i t ­te r ly resent the alien B r it is h hand th a t ru les them. They w an t to cla im the r ig h t prom ised in the U n ited N a tions ’ cha rte r — the r ig h t to decide th e ir po litica l fa te by a free vote. B ut London is determ ined to hold on to th is s tra teg ic M editerranean island and so the hopes o f the C yprio ts fo r jus tice from the U N have been dashed once again.

The Greek spokesman in the U N was in th is case interested in se lf de term ination fo r Cyprus be­cause i t is expected th a t a g rea t m a jo r ity o f C yp rio ts would vote to become p a r t o f Greece. He made a special appeal to the U n ited States delegation to give them the r ig h t to be heard. In past sessions o f the U N the U.S. position was to abstain in fu l l confidence th a t the U N would bar

the appeal and ye t m a in ta in the illus ion th a t the U n ited States was opposed to colon ia lism .

However, the recent A s ia -A frica conference a t Bandung and the rap id spread o f colonial revo lt in A fr ic a , increased the confidence and. power o f colon ia l spokesmen and abstention became ris k y . On th is occasion Lodge, W ashington's spokesman led the f ig h t to keep the C yp rio t case o f f the f lo o r and cast the U.S. vote w ith France B rita in and th e ir stooges.

The Greek speaker in his ap­peal fo r U.S. support reminded Lodge that the U n ited States won its independence in a revo lu tion against B r it is h ty rann y . But Lodge was s in g u la r ly un im ­pressed. The cop yrig h t to the revo lu tion o f 1776 rem ains in W ashington fo r use on cerem onial occasions on ly — would-be im ita ­to rs are warned to do so a t th e ir peril.

I t was the tu rn o f the A lg e ria ns next. Th is oppressed colony of France had its case presented by 14 nations o f Asia and A fr ic a led by Ind ia . The spokesman o f the rap id ly d is in te g ra tin g F r e n c h colonial em pire took the UN f lo o r w ith blood in his eye.

He warned and threatened that the N o rth A fr ic a n colonies were possessions o f France and what took place there was sole ly a French in te rna l a f fa ir and that i f A lg e ria found a place on th< U N agenda i t would be a direct v io la tion o f the sacred UN charter.

The French im p e ria lis ts arc w ag ing a bloody, desperate but doomed w a r against th e ir colonial subjects in N o rth A fr ic a . They can on ly c a rry on th is w a r w ith the help o f the U n ited States. In A fr ic a , F rance counts on U.S. m il ita ry supplies as in the U N i t counts on the bloc o f votes con­tro lled by W ashington.

The C yp rio ts and the A lg e ria ns were turned away fro m the ha lls o f the U N . The B r it is h s laugh te r o f natives in Kenya, the b ru ta l aparthe id o f the South A fr ic a n w h ite suprem acists, the bloody' op­pression in M alaya, the te rro r in Morocco and Tun is ia , the ho ld ing on to Goa by P ortuga l — none o f th is is pe rm itte d to reach the f lo o r o f the UN .

H IG H S T A K E SThe A m erican b illio n a ire m o­

nopolists have h igh stakes in the colonial w o rld o f A fr ic a and Asia . A recent issue o f the South A fr ic a n weekly, New Age, com­m enting on the tremendous g row th o f A m erican in te res t in A fr ic a said, “ You can ha rd ly place your f in g e r on A fr ic a ’s 11 ’ 2

m illion square m iles o f te r r ito ry w ith o u t f in d in g the name o f a U.S. f irm . ”

A t one tim e the d o lla r aim s o f Am erican monopoly cap ita l could be served in apparent harm ony w ith the m arch o f na tiona l move­ments fo r freedom against Hie European colonial powers. In a perta in sense the troub les o f the European cap ita lis ts was W ash­in g ton ’s o p po rtu n ity . Now, how ­ever, W ashington faces a d i f ­fe ren t problem . I t is p ropp ing up ts W estern c a p ita lis t a llies by the sheer w e igh t o f A m erican m il i­ta ry and do lla r power.

No choice is le ft to the W ash­ington po licy m akers but to cast o f f a ll pretense and to take the side openly and unashamedly o f the European colon ia l powers. The U.S. delegates a t the U N can no longer a ffo rd sanctim onious ab­stention on the bu rn ing colonial issues tha t come up. I t m ust now take the in ia tiv e openly and pub lic ly before the en tire w orld to bo ls ter the d is in te g ra tin g im ­pe ria lis t system.

REVOLUTIONARY ANTI-STALINISTS NOT LISTED IN KREMLIN AMNESTY

C H IN E S E R E V O L U T IO NThe question o f the Chinese

revo lu tion , the re fore, occupied a cen tra l place in the discussion at the SW P ga the ring . In his report, to the plenum, M o rris S tein stressed th a t “ we cannot understand the w o rld s itua tion unless we understand the Ch in­ese revo lu tion .” The Chinese re v ­o lu tion has in jec ted a new' fa c ­to r in to W'orld a ffa irs , a fa c to r w h ich m ust be taken in to con­sidera tion in any assessment o f fu tu re development.

The m ain line o f analysis and the po litica l conclusions o f the d ra ft reso lu tion on the “ T h ird Chinese Revolu tion and its A f te r - m a th ” were adopted.

A f te r extended discussion the plenum voted to designate the state w h ich emerged as a resu lt o f the Chinese re vo lu tion under

S ta lin is t leadership as a “ de­form ed w orkers s ta te .”

In add ition to the reso lu tion on China the plenum also adopt­ed reso lu tions on the “ Rise o f the Colonial Bourgeoisie” and “ The Soviet U n ion Today” as pa rts o f a general reso lu tion on in te rna tiona l a ffa irs w ith o ther sections to be added la te r.

F u rth e r discussion in the p a rty on im p o rta n t theore tica l ques­tions- re la ted to the in te rna tiona l s itu a tio n was provided fo r by the plenum.

The reso lu tion on the T h ird Chinese R evolution, a fte r m ak­in g a thorough analysis o f the concrete development o f the rev­o lu tion and the social tra n s fo r­m ations i t b ro ug h t about con­cludes w ith the fo llo w in g sum ­m ary :

“ The im pact o f the T h ird Chinese R evolution, the social trans fo rm a tions i t b rough t about, the blow's i t delivered to w o rld cap ita lism , have been second only to those o f the 1917 Revo­lu tio n in Russia. The “ Russian Question” has been the m ain axis in w o rld po litics fo r nearly fo u r decades; i t now' has found its extension and deepening in the Chinese Question.”

“ W orld im peria lism w h i c h could never come to any la s ting agreem ents w ith the Soviet U n ­ion is even less capable today o f com ing to any la s tin g agree­ments w ith the Soviet U n ion and China w'ho have been th row n toge ther in to an alliance, w'hich ne ithe r P eking nor Moscow dares upset.

“ I f the LT.S. im p e ria lis ts have not waged a ll-o u t w a r against them up to now, i t is fo r one reason and one reason on ly— the test o f s treng th on the Korean ba ttle fie ld convinced them th a t they could not w in such a w ar at th is tim e. T h is is the ch ie f reason fo r today’ s stalem ate, which can on ly be tem porary . E ith e r U.S. im peria lism w ill p lunge in to a ll-ou t w ar o r the Chinese revo lu tion w ill find its extension in to o ther countries and end cap ita lism forever.

“ One th in g is certa in , there is no solution a long the course o f the P eking and K re m lin bureau- racies. T h e ir na rrow nationalist, course, th e ir co-existence line, b ring s them in to co n flic t w 'ith the needs o f the w o rld socialist, revo lu tion , h u t i t w il l no t save them fro m im p e ria lis t assault. The in te rests o f the w o rk ing class in the c a p ita lis t countries, ju s t as the in te rests o f the w orkers o f China and the Soviet Un ion are expressed in the p ro ­gram o f the perm anent revo lu ­tion , the p rogram upon which the F o u rth In te rn a tio n a l is founded.”

By Carl GoodmanD u rin g the course o f its ne­

go tia tions w ith W est German Chancellor Adenauer, the Soviet Government granted an amnesty to v ir tu a lly a ll c itizens who a l­legedly collaborated w ith G er­man forces in W orld W ar 11.

A ccord ing to the Sept. 19 N .Y . Times, m ore than h a lf o f the prison and exile popu lation of the Soviet U n ion m ay bene fit from the am nesty decree. M il­lions o f people were fo rc ib ly up ­rooted d u rin g W orld W a r I I and exiled to S iberia on the charge o f co llabora tion w ith the enemy. They com prise perhaps as much

as 90% o f the popu lation o f the Soviet Union in regions least suited fo r human settlem ent be­cause o f c lim a tic o r other phys i­cal factors.

A m ong those com ing under the am nesty are Soviet soldiers who gave themselves up to the G er­man arm ies, as w e ll as en tire ethnic groups such as the C r i­mean Tartar's, Volga Germans and o ther na tiona l group ings -in the Caucasus and the Baltic.

The am nesty decree is also de­signed as a prelude to free ing nearly 10,000 Germans convicted and im prisoned in the Soviet Union fo r w a r crimes. Then- release is p a r t o f the agreement whereby d ip lom atic re la tions be-

(Continued from page 1)p lanta tions. N o t so much to see the black Congressman as to a t­tend the t r ia l under the security th a t the presence o f a black Congressman o ffe red .”

“ You d idn ’t know when you voted in last yea r’s election th a t you were p ro v id ing secu rity fo r our bro thers in M iss iss ipp i,” cried D iggs. “ Remember th a t.” The crowd applauded.

The M ich igan Congressman answered those who attacked him fo r leaving his constituency, “ Some people refuse to see the lin k between w ha t happens in M ississipp i and w ha t happens in New Y o rk o r M ich igan. I feel th a t I represent a ll the people, and the m urde r o f a 14-yea.r-old N egro boy could not be more m y concern i f i t had happened in D e tro it.”

He stated his in ten tion to make the p ro tection o f the c iv il r ig h ts o f anybody, “ b lack o r w h ite , anywhere in the land,” his busi­ness. A ga in the audience ap­plauded.

D iggs charged tha t since h a lf the popu lation o f M iss iss ipp i has been disenfranchised by the racists, th a t sta te should be en­t it le d to on ly h a lf as m any Con­gressmen as i t now has. He said th a t the test o f the tw o po litica l parties should be the question: “ W hat are you go ing to do to insure the r ig h ts o f Negroes in the U n ited S ta tes?”

“ I am tire d o f po litic ian s o f both pa rties g r in n in g a t us in New Y o rk and M ich igan and slam m ing the door in our faces in M iss iss ipp i,” he declared. He did no t m ention h is own p a rty a ff ilia tio n .

S T A Y A N D F IG H TA h igh po in t in D iggs ’ speech

came when he to ld the audience tha t he believed a cam paign to force Negroes ou t o f the South had been undertaken by the rac­is ts because o f the close num er­ical re la tionsh ip o f forces.

"W hen you w rite you r re la ­tives down there te ll them ‘drop you r buckets where you are’ ! The po ten tia litie s fo r Negroes are loo great in M iss iss ipp i fo r them to a llow themselves to be forced out,” D iggs advised, say­in g the N egro people were m ak­ing progress and th a t they were

not going to stop. “ M ississipp i may yet have a N egro gover­nor,” he predicted.

H e described s p ir it in g two Negro w itnesses aw ay “ in the dead o f n ig h t to the sanctuary o f Chicago.” “ These were not sophisticated Negroes,” Dig'gs said, “ but. the k in d who have been born and bred in M iss is­s ipp i and are used to addressing w h ite people on ly w ith ‘yassuh and nossuh.’ A nd here they were p o in tin g the finger o f accusation at w h ite men. I hope Negroes w il l be impressed by th e ir cour­age.”

D e tro it ’s g roa t p ro tes t dem­onstra tion was v ir tu a lly en tire ly Negro. There were a lm ost no w h ite faces in the crowd, not even a sp rin k lin g . The on ly w h ite persons on the p la tfo rm were members o f D iggs personal guard.

Many' la rge donations were made and the baskets passed among the crowd came back f i l l ­ed w ith b ills . The on ly tim e the labo r movement was m entioned was d u rin g the announcement o f the collections when several groups o f union w orkers were lis ted am ong the con tribu to rs .

tween W est Germ any and the Soviet U n ion w ill be restored.

The Soviet governm ent also in ­v ited Soviet c itizens abroad who gave themselves up to the G er­man arm ies o r served in G er­man armed forces to re tu rn free o f lia b il ity . I t prom ised those who com m itted “ severe crim es aga inst the Soviet s ta te ” a m ax­im um sentence o f f iv e years in prison i f they re turned and pleaded g u ilty .

The London newspaper Sunday Observer recently reported th a t the Soviet Government is releas­ing la rge num bers o f prisoners from forced labor camps in A rc ­tic Russia and S iberia . The newspaper cred ited in te rv iew s w ith A u s tr ia n and Japanese w a r prisoners recently freed from Soviet prison camps fo r the in ­fo rm a tion .

P O L IT IC A L PR ISO NERSThere are no ind ica tions, how­

ever, th a t the K re m lin is free ing any p o lit ic a l prisoners, who num ­ber m illio ns in the slave labo r camps. These include T ro ts k y ­ists, anarch ists, re lig ious paci­fis ts , T ito is t sym path izers and other w orkers and youth devoted to the cause o f Socia lis t con­s truction .

A ll o f them were a rden t ene­mies o f Nazism. Today they con­tinue to uphold the p rogram o f defense o f the Soviet U n ion aga inst U . S. im p e ria lis t a ttack and c a p ita lis t res to ra tion . They f ig h t the S ta lin is t d ic ta to rsh ip because o f ' its oppressive ru le against the w o rk in g people and advocate a reg im e o f w o rke rs ’ democracy. Y e t the K re m lin fram ed them as “ saboteurs,” “ spies,” “ N azi agents,” o r “ agents o f U.S. im p e ria lism ” d u rin g successive purges in the Soviet U n ion and E astern E u r­ope.

Innocent v ic tim s o f show tr ia ls staged by the S ta lin is ts in E as t­ern Europe in 1949-1953 were accused o f being “ T ito is t fa s ­c is ts ." D u rin g the course o f his v is i t to Belgrade la s t M ay, N i­k ita S. Khrushchev, Secretary o f the C om m unist P a rty o f the Soviet U n ion , h im se lf adm itted th a t K re m lin charges o f “ fa s ­c is t” made by the K re m lin aga inst Y ugoslav C om m unist P a rty leaders had been “ fa b r i­cated.”

F o llo w in g th is adm ission, F a r ­re ll Dobbs, N a tiona l S ecre tary o f the Socia lis t W orkers P a rty sent a cable to Khrushchev de­m anding th a t “ in in te re s t o f USSR and w o rld w o rk in g class . . . you release fro m prisons and s lave-labor camps a ll v ic ­tim s o f th is fram e-up .”

Dobbs also demanded th a t Khrushchev in v ite an in te rn a ­tional c iv il lib e rtie s com m ission to review the fac ts o f a ll S ta l­in is t fram e-ups, in c lud in g the Moscow T r ia ls o f the 1930’s.

For only $1.25 you can get a one-year subscription to the M arxist quarterly, Fourth In ­ternational, 116 University PL, New York 8, N . Y .

...Record Turnout at Detroit’s Meeting

w ith each o ther to b r in g these two together in the “ s p ir it o f Geneva.”

The U N ’s f i r s t o rder o f busi­ness dea lt w ith the agenda fo r the sessions o f the General Assem bly. Here the w orld o f re a lity — o f colonial s trugg le against im peria lism — in truded sha rp ly in to the peaceful co­existence rhe to ric o f the speech- makers. The colon ia l people have up to now taken seriously the purposes o f the U'N as stateri in its cha rte r; nam ely, to provide the means to achieve se lf de te r­m ination and the end o f colonial exp lo ita tion .

Two th ird s o f the w o rld ’s pop­u la tion is w ag ing a w ar fo r its independence and freedom from the g re a t cap ita lis t powers. T h is is a m o rta l challenge to the W est­ern im peria lis ts .

W henever a colonial v ic tim of these im p e ria lis ts appeals to the U n ited Nations, a ll the w e igh t

The Negro StruggleA Step in the Right Direction

Several columnists in the Negro press have criticized the top leadership of Negro organizations in this country for not being active enough in the struggle to preserve civil liberties against the witch hunters. The point made by these perspicacious columnists is that Negro leaders and the Negro people should not think that defense of political freedom from the “ loyalty” purgers and the Attorney General with his subversive list is an issue unrelated to the struggle against Jim Crow.

The fight for civil liberties and the fight for the civil rights of the Negro people are two inseparable parts of a common struggle. However, perhaps because of a division of labor that has grown up, the shortsighted and dangerous notion has been developed that these were separate battles.

The daily experience of both the civil liberties’ and the anti-Jim Crow civil rights’ figh t demonstrates the falsity of this idea.

On Aug. 1 Georgia’s racist Board of Education declared: “ Any teacher in Georgia who supports, encourages, con­dones or agrees to teach a [racially] mixed grade, or any teacher who is a member of the NAACP, any allied organization or any subversive organization, shall have his or her [teaching] license revoked and forfeited for life.”

The obvious inspiration of this at­tempted anti-integration “ subversive” list was the federal government’s “ subversive list.” The Georgia racist figured.

People fired on “ loyalty” charges, have in countless instances been unable to get jobs in private industry, are barred in some places from unemployment com­pensation due them, have been ordered out of housing projects, have even been denied the necessary licenses to tune pianos.

In Mississippi the White Citizens Coun­cils noted all this. They are now applying this technique of the witch-hunt to ruin any Negro who signs a desegregation peti­tion or who registers to vote. Such “ sub­versives” of the Dixiecrat Way of Life are fired from jobs, blacklisted, denied credit, etc.

Thus the spreading of the methods used to suppress those who believe in radical, economic and political changes in capital­ism to those who demand radical changes in the racist system of the South, hat underlined the indivisibility of the fight against the witch hunt and the fight against Jim Crow.

That the leaders of the Negro struggle are awakening to the need to participate more actively in the fight against the witch hunt is seen in the formation on Sept. 25 of a new organization. I t calls itself Americans for Traditional Liberties I t is headed by 82 prominent figures, a sizeable number of whom are identified with the figh t for Negro equality.

For example among the founders are A. Philip Randolph, President of the AFL Sleeping Car Porters; Arthur B. Spingarn, President of the NAACP; Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, President of Morehouse College; Prof. J. Saunders Redding of Hampton Institute; Russell P. Crawford, President of the N. Y. Branch of the NAACP; and Prof. Frank Dorey of Howard University.

Americans for Traditional Liberties have listed nine major evils in present day America. These include not only dis­crimination and segregation but the witch hunt with its use of “ loyalty” purges, subversive lists, paid informers and guilt by association. While their attack on the witch hunt is not as basic as is needed, it is a step in the right direction and the prominent participation of Negro leaders is a welcome sign indeed.

rai MIJ.ITANT

I rode home from work the other night together with five of my shopmates who are Puerto Ricans. We stopped at a bar on New York’s Lower East Side for a few beers. We had worked overtime and it was one o’clock in the morning.

The talk got around to the problem of discrimination against the Puerto Rican people in New York, particularly those with dark skins.

“ You know,” one of the fellows said, “ we have discrimination in Puerto Rico, too, but its mostly from the rich people who are white. There are some places they won’t let a man with a black skin go.”

“ Yes,” said another, “ but if they dared to stop me on the street in Puerto Rico I would slap their faces — here in New York i t ’s different. Here they insult you even on the street.”

The oldest worker in the group whom I ’ve known ever since I went to work in the auto assembly plant, moved next to me at the bar and pressed his brown arm next to my white one.

“ You see,” he said, “ the color is d if­ferent; yet you and I can he good friends. Why shouldn’t i t be that way with every­one?”

A t this moment a new customer walked into the baz‘. He was at least half drunk. On his way to the other erud of the bar he paused as if he were going to say some­

thing. then moved on.“ Cop,” muttered three or four voices.

The convei'sation continued but it became sti'ained.

The off-duty cop ordered a drink and then motioned to the one in our group nearest to him to come over and talk with him. He began to ask all kinds of personal questions and acted as i f he were question­ing a “ suspect.” The l’est of us sat waiting with tension mounting.

Finally the youngest in our group burst out, “ I ’m going over there. What right has he got to talk to my friend like that?”

“ Sit s till!” the older worker told him. “ he’s got a gun and he’ll use it.”

“ I don’t care. He’s got no right to do that, we’re not bothez'ing anyone.”

A t this point the bartender intervened: “ I t ’s all right officer. All these people are my friends.”

“ Are you sure?” the cop asked suspi­ciously.

“ Yes, they’re all good people. Come on and have a drink.”

The cop hesitated drunkenly and then turned back to his place at the bar.

A few minutes later I passed by him on the way to the rest room and said, “ Why are you bothering us? We’re just having a few beez\s on the way home from work.”

“ Beat i t ! ” said the off-duty cop in a thick voice.

V O LU M E X IX M O N D A Y , O CTOBER 3, 1955 N U M B E R 40

A f te r 23 Weeks, S o u th e rn S tr ik e rs W in Negro Girl, 18, Accosted; Cops Put Her in Jail

By John BlackPITTSBURGH, Sept. 24 — Like everywhere throughout

the country, people here have followed with passionate in­terest the details of the Mississippi tria l which followed the k idnap ing and m urder o f £-

A long, b it te r s tr ik e in a company tow n, w lie re the union couldn’ t even ren t a headquarters and had to use a church bus instead, ended in v ic to ry fo r the CIO T e x tile W orkers. The tow n is Tuxedo, N o rth Carolina. S trike against Green R iv e r M ills beg’an A p r i l 6. Settlem ent included a ll the benefits o f a union contract over open-shop conditions, plus wage boosts o f 5 to 20-cents an hour, averag ing 12V2 cent*»

Our Readers Take the Floor

Notes from the News

The Braden CaseE d ito r:

Today is our 55 lh W edding A nn ive rsa ry . (M y w ife is 83; I am 85 years old.) We celebrate by appealing (as w ide ly as we can) fo r help in m oving Am erica towards complete Desegregation.

A n exam ple: A w h ite news­paper man, C arl Braden, is ou t o f Jail on a $40,000 bond — pending appeal fro m his sentence to 15 years in prison, p lus $5,- 000 fine. (H e spent 8 m onths in .jail before, his frien ds could raise the m onstrous $40,000 ba il.)

W hat crim e? C arl and his noble w ife Anne Braden (ad­dress: P.O. Box 1302, Lou isv ille , K en tucky) bought a modest house in a sem i-ru ra l commu­n ity , two or three m iles outside Lou isv ille . They sold i t to a refined colored man, h is w ife and two sm all children.

The colored fa m ily was fierce-

ly attacked. F in a lly , th e ir new home was dynam ited!

Local lega l au tho rities , instead o f m oving aga inst the lynchers, indicted Carl and Anne Braden and 5 o ther w h ite fr ien ds o f de­segregation ( in c lud in g 2 tra ined social w o rkers) fo r — “ Consp ir­in g to damage p ro pe rty (by bom bing) — to achieve a p o lit i­cal end — com m unism .”

To help undo th is mad in ju s ­tice — and to help preserve A m erica ’s repu ta tion fo r fa ir p lay — we urge our fe llo w c it i ­zens to w r ite M rs. Anne Braden (a t her Lo u isv ille address, g iven above) fo r fu l l , free in fo rm a tio n , inc lud ing nine photographs. (W e have also, v o lu n ta r ily , co n trib ­uted $15.00 thus fa r tow ards the necessary, la rge Defense Fund.)

Thus we hope th a t others m ay be led — as we are led — to help remove th is te rr ib le stain from our cou n try ’s soul.

S incerely,Charles F. H e lle r Founder-President o f W orld Fel lowship, Inc. and the W orld Fel lowship o f Fa iths

OHIO BOSSES RAISE FUNO TO BEAT CIO DRIVE FOR $50 JOBLESS PAY

Y O U N G S TO W N , Sept. 28 — Ohio em ployers have swung in to action aga inst the C IO ’s cam­paign to raise unem ploym ent com­pensation to a decent m in im um . Recently the State Board o f E lections announced tha t the CIO had secured enough s igna­tures on its pe tition to place the jobless pay issue on the Novem ­ber ba llo t.

The CIO measure would raise rates to $50 a week fo r 39 weeks from the present. $33 fo r 26 weeks. The labor organ ization obtained 130,000 signatures, w ith 77,000 va lid s igna tu res required

to p u t the in it ia t iv e measure on the ba llo t.

P LA N SM E A RThd em ployers’ com m ittee is

ra is in g a w a r chest in order to smear tire CIO proposal. The plan is to dun each em ployer in the state 75c. per employe. A t th a t rate, tftre S tate C IO estimates, the slush fund w il l come to $2 m illion .

The B ig Business contro lled press has a lready opened an o f­fensive aga inst the C IO ’s p ro ­posal. F o r example, the lead edi­to r ia l o f th e Sept. 18 Youngstown V in d ica to r denounced the proposed raise in jobless bene fits as “ fa n ­tas tic .’’ The ed itors — repea ting

“ W H IC H IS B IG G ER — C hevro le t’s shop ru le No. 30 o r the U.S. C o ns titu tio n ” asks Local 262 o f The U n ited A u to W orkers. The Local is f ig h t ­in g the two-week la y o f f pena lty aga inst A l M ill- stein, ed ito r o f the Local paper, The Forgem an, who w ro te an a rtic le exposing the h igh number o f accidents re s u lt in g fro m speed-up in the bum per shop. M anagem ent suspended h im w ithou t f i l in g specific charges. “ I f the ed ito r can be penalized fo r exposing a sa fe ty hazard in the p lan t, any member, any com m itteem an o r o ff ic e r can likew ise be punished o r firmed fo r speaking out ve rb a lly in p r in t ,” the sta tem ent said, charg ing a v io la tio n o f freedom o f the press.

* * »

S M IT H A C T V IC T IM S s t il l ge t harsh tre a t­ment in spite o f the “ new look” in in te rna tiona l po litics. M ax W eiss is being held on $50,000 ba il pending a hearing on his e x trad itio n to Chicago. Jacob M inde l, 74-year-old v ic tim , is s t i l l in ja i l a t Danbury, Conn. A lthough lie is s u ffe r in g from a serious heart a ilm ent and is e lig ib le fo r parole h is case is s t i l l under consideration. Pleas fo r his release have come from m any sources, inc lud ing Bertrand Russell, noted B r it is h philosopher. S y lv ia

Their Morals and OursBy LEON TROTSKY

A ll the “moralistic” arguments of anti- M arxists — from the hoary charge that Lenin and the Bolsheviks were “amoral” to the current accusation that the guiding M arxist maxim is that “ the end justifies the means” — are answered in this classic work.64 pages 25 cents

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116 University Place New York 3, N , Y.

Stein, w ife o f Sidney Stein in Federal Detention House in New Y ork C ity , has asked the Federal Prison Bureau to a llow him to see his fa th e r who is 81 years old and ¡11. When S te in ’s m other died he wasn’t allowed to a ttend her fune ra l.

* * *

A C A T H O LIC W O R K E R salesman won a reversa l by the New Y ork C ourt o f Appeals from a low er-cou rt conviction fo r se lling lite ra tu re on the s treets w ith o u t a license. He was defended by an A m erican C iv il L ibe rties U n ion law yer.

* * *NEGRO F L IE R S are availab le fo r a ir line em­

p loym ent the U rban League has announced. The announcement, in e ffec t, tests the seriousness o f a “ decision” made by the P resident’s Committee on Governm ent contracts to act aga inst job d is ­c rim ina tio n by a irlines , ra ilw a ys and steamship companies. The League has on f i le the names o f 100 Negro f lie rs w ith broad f ly in g experience, some w ith as much as 11.000 horn's f ly in g tim e.

* * *“ HO W BIG IS BIG B U S IN E S S ?” asks colum ­

n is t S y lv ia P o rte r in the New Y o rk Post. Here is her answer in p a r t: A bou t h a lf o f the W estern W orld 's in d u s tr ia l output- is produced by the U n ited States — and a lm ost one h a lf o f th is, is produced by about 500 corporations. These 500 corpora tions represent less than tw o-ten ths o f one percent o f U.S. in d u s tr ia l enterprises, ye t they rake in 66 percent o f the net p ro fits o f a ll in ­du s tria l companies. The g ian ts are g e ttin g b igger t il l the tim e : GM is the b iggest o f them a ll w ith S tandard O il o f New Jersey, Bell System, du Pont and U.S. Steel fo llo w in g in th a t order.

* * *F A R M SU R P LU S E S are now a t the $5 b illio n

m ark, the D epartm ent o f A g r ic u ltu re has an­nounced, and i t costs about $967,000 a day s im p ly to store it . H enry W allace, who served as Sec­re ta ry o f A g r ic u ltu re under Roosevelt and helped in s titu te the fa rm price suppo rt system, has called fo r a program o f feed ing the h u ng ry , a t home and abroad.

He Needed Overtime For That Sixth Child

By Robert ChesterWhat would you do i f you were the father of five

children, with a sixth one due any hour, and you had the chance to make some extra money by tvorking overtime?I t ’s a tough decision e ith e r w a y .®You w an t the e x tra money even though you r bones ache, b u t youalso w an t to be home a t th is cruc ia l moment.

F e lix Becehel, 32 years old, o f B rooklyn had to make th is choice and decided to w ork.

No m a tte r th a t it. was also a Sunday and he had worked a ll S atu rday n igh t. He needed th a t overtim e money. So he w ent to the phone to call h is w ife , the last tim e he would ever call her.

“ I to ld h im the baby was due any m inute,” M rs. Beechel sob­bed to reporters, “ I pleaded w ith h im to come home. Besides th a t i t was m y 31st b irth da y .

“ He tr ie d to joke w ith me a li t t le , ” she added. “ He said, ‘ Look, i t ’s a lo t o f money and we sure can use i t . ’ So he w o rk ­ed.”

F e lix was a ha rd -w o rk in g fa m ily man. In his o f f hours he fixed the apartm en t, b u ild in g closets, p u ttin g in shelves, p a in t­ing, to make the home neat and com fortable . N ow tbe fa m ily was m oving ou t en tire ly . F e lix Beechel lo s t h is l i fe th a t day, Sept. 25, 1955 in a slide o f 25 tons o f coal in a bunker in t lie

m ain B rook lyn powerhouse o f the B M T subway.

“ I don’t know w h a t we’l l do,” the young w idow said, “ We had $100 in the bank th a t we were saving fo r a down paym ent on a house. 1 can’t s tay in the apartm ent. E ve ry tim e I look a t som eth ing I can see h im there w o rk in g .”

The fa m ily and fr ien ds arc ch ipp ing in to help the v ic tim s. Two ch ildren, P h ilip , ten, and W illia m , seven, w i l l s tay w ith a friend . James, five, and Jo A nn, three, a rc s ta y in g w ith one o f M rs. Becchel’s sisters. P a tric ia , 12, w i l l s tay to help her m other. A f te r the fun e ra l they w i l l s tay w ith another sister.

Thus ends another w o rk ing class tragedy. F o r the company, however, i t is ju s t another in ­surance s ta tis tic . There are and w ill he o ther F e lix Beechels to c a rry on th e thankless s trugg le fo r existence and m a in ta in the flo w o f p ro fits and dividend pay­ments which must never stop— never tha t is u n til a Socialist o rder e lim inates the desperate choices th a t lead to such g rim tragedies.

a stock a rgum ent o f the bosses — claim th a t the increase would encourage w orkers to loaf.

In addition, they com plain th a t the CIO is using the in it ia t iv e prov is ion o f the Ohio C onstitu ­tion as a too l in the in te rests o f a “ m in o r ity ” g roup (nam ely, the w o rk ing people.)

'The V ind ica to r, o f course, is care fu l no t to c ite the rea l reason the em ployers oppose a h ike o f unem ploym ent compensation rates to $50. (T h is ra te , by the way, is w e ll below reg u la r wages at union scales.) They fear tha t such a hike w ill serve as pressure on employers paying below union- scale wages. F u rthe rm ore , it gives the w orkers ju s t a shade more secu rity and would force the em ployers to pay a greater tax.

The bosses reso rt not on ly to th e ir slush fund and newspapers in o rder to f ig h t the measure but to the tw o m a jo r pa rties as w e ll. Democratic G overnor Lausche has spoken out aga inst the CIO measure. So has the Republican pa rty .

The labo r -movement has no p a rty o.f its own th rough which to cam paign fo r tbe proposal and m obilize the w o rkers ’ votes on election day. T h is ham pers its campaign to c a rry the proposal.

The blame fo r the handicap fa lls squarely on the leadership which has s tead fastly opposed the. b u ild in g o f a labo r p a r ty and keeps the po w erfu l union move­m ent tied to Dem ocratic and Republican po litic ians.

the 14-.vear-old Negro you th E m ­m ett T i l l , fo r “ w h is tlin g .”

Newspapers in th is c ity have, o f course, ed ito ria lized about the need fo r a fa ir and ju s t t r ia l . B u t the d a ily press has shown no in te res t in the case o f M iss Thelm a T a y lo r, 18-year-old N e­gro P ittsb u rg h e r employed in a beauty shop on the N orths ide o f town.

La s t S atu rday, Sept. 17, M iss T ay lo r, who had w orked late, had to pass one o f the m any saloons on the N orths ide on her way home. Two w h ite men in th e ir ea rly 20’s s tand ing outside a tavern , accosted her and made w hat she has described as an obscene and indecent proposal to her. She v ig o ro us ly resented th is and to ld the tw o fe llow s so. She to ld them th a t they on ly dared ta lk th a t w ay to he r because she was colored and demanded th a t they le t her pass.

COPS A R R E S T V IC T IMWhen they continued to abuse

her and prevent he r fro m go ing on her way, she called fo r help to a passing police ear. The tw o cops le f t the car and began to question her — instead o f the tw o men. She to ld them w ha t had happened b u t the cops were not in terested in her com p la in t and began to a rre s t her.

W ith b it te r in d ig na tion Miss T a y lo r to ld the cops, “ They k i l l ­ed a l i t t le colored boy in M is ­sissipp i fo r w h is tlin g at a w h ite woman, but up here in P it ts ­burgh colored women can’ t be protected from ro tten w h ite men when the police are around.”

B y th is tim e another squad car appeared and also M iss T a y ­lo r ’s parents, who had been c a ll­ed by a fr ie n d , a rrived on the scene.

When her paren ts saw the po­lice choking th e ir daughter, the fa th e r in tervened by saying : “ Don’t choke her. A rre s t her i f vou w ish but don’t abuse her.” The police then arrested him and the m other, too. In the process Miss T a y lo r was manhandled, her clothes to rn and she was called in s u lt in g names.

The two w h ite men who had

been responsible fo r the whole a f fa ir were released u n t il the hearing . The three members o f tbe T a y lo r fa m ily , however, were th row n in ja i l pending t r ia l . In ja i l M iss T a y lo r has com plained th a t she was subjected to much fo u l language by the m a tron and the cops.

When the case was f in a lly heard the judge fined the parents and the tw o w h ite lou ts $10 each — and held M iss T a y lo r fo r f u r ­th e r cou rt action ! The charge aga inst her w ill p robab ly be " re ­s is tin g a rre s t.”

M r. T ay lo r, a s tee lw orker, is an usher a t the Macedonian Bap­t is t Church. He to ld his s to ry to h is m in is te r. Rev. H arvey. The fo llo w in g Monday, at the reg u la r business m eeting o f the Church, the case was presented and the congregation voted unanim ously to set up a $1,000 Lega l Defense Fund to aid any member o f the Church needing help in s im ila r casgs o f in ju s tice at the hands o f the au thorities .

AR O U S E D A N G E RThe police trea tm e n t o f the

young woman was bad enough. The sham eful acq u itta l o f the lynchers o f 14-year-o ld E m m e tt T i l l in M iss iss ipp i com ing on top o f th is local case has g re a tly aroused the anger o f the Negro popu lation o f P ittsbu rgh .

Dem ocratic M ayo r David Law ­rence, o f w age-tax no to rie ty , has repeatedly boasted o f the am i­able race re la tio n s w h ich P it ts ­burgh is supposed to have en­joyed d u rin g his ad m in is tra tion . The names o f the fo u r cops in ­volved in the T a y lo r case are known. I t rem ains to be seen i f the M ayor and the o the r c ity o f­fic ia ls w i l l do even the barest m in im um — suspending them fo r th e ir b ru ta l rac ia l b ig o try , pending a thorough inves tiga tion o f the case a t a public hearing.

T h is case and many others in ­vo lv in g police b ru ta li ty have been called to the M ayo r’s a t­ten tion. W ith elections com ing up here, there w ill be many op» p o rtu n ities to question a ll c ity o ffic ia ls seeking re-election about th e ir conduct in th is a ffa ir .

. . . President’s Illness Staggers GOP(C ontinued fro m page 1)

in the w orld and weapon s itu a ­tion made the w a r d rive again the o rder o f the day.

Specifica lly th is m eant the ending o f the Korean w a r, the w a r in Indo-China, the beg in­n ing o f some s o rt o f modus v iv - endi w ith China and the Soviet U n ion. These th ings have a ll been m ore o r less accomplished or begun in the three years E is ­enhower has been in o ffice and the pub lic has generously, but m is taken ly , cred ited h im per­sonally fo r “ keeping us out of w a r.”

The labor bureaucracy, mean­while, has done eve ry th in g in its power to s trengthen th is im ­pression. Chained to (he defense o f the T rum an a d m in is tra tio n ’s record, the labor bureaucrats speak m ore be llig e re n tly on fo r ­eign po licy than does the State D epartm ent.

W h ile the labo r o ffic ia ls m ay fancy th is shows how anti-Com - m un is t they are and a llow s them to charge th a t E isenhower is be ing taken in by the Soviets, it ac tua lly strengthened the pop­u la r im pression th a t Eisenhower alone was w o rk in g to ease the w a r th rea t. Thus m ost a n ti-w a r sen tim ent in th is cou n try w ont by d e fa u lt to E isenhower and is the p rinc ip a l fa c to r in h is “ pop­u la r ity . ”

T H E Y SEE V IC T O R YInside the Dem ocratic P a rty

the leaders o f the b ig c ity m a­chines o f the N o rth and the labor leaders are ju b ila n t. The defeat they su ffe red a t the hands o f the Southern Dem ocrats over po licy in Congress appears to bo now undone. The Southern w ing, which pre fe rs to contro l Congress, and thus the Demo­c ra tic P a rty , bu t to have a Re­publican P resident w ith whom i t can make deals, ran the 84th Congress so th a t the Dem ocratic cam paign in 1956 w ould lack the leg is la tive record needed to beat Eisenhower.

Now the m achine bosses and tbe labo r leaders see a presiden­t ia l v ic to ry in 1956. C ontro l o f the W h ite House and federa l

patronage w il l also g ive them dominance in the p a rty .over the Southern Senators.

Thus prospects, b a rr in g un­foreseen p o lit ic a l developments o f m a jo r p roportions, are fo r a Dem ocratic P residentia l and Con­gressional v ic to ry in 1956. Labo r leaders w ill once again have a l­leged frie n d s in con tro l o f the governm ent. Labo r bureaucrats w ill en te r the W h ite House by the f ro n t door and once in a w h ile get called by th e ir f ir s t names by the “ ch ie f.”

Rut the rank and file w orkers w ill w ant more tang ib le benefits. It. is safe to pred ict th a t they w ill not get an y th in g more sub­s ta n tia l than they did fro m T ru ­m a n — who counterbalanced h is few concessions w ith frequent governm ent s tr ikeb reak ing . A nd once the p ro spe rity bubble bu rs ts a Dem ocratic A d m in is tra tio n w il l q u ick ly dem onstrate its tru e class na tu re to a rad ica lized Am erican w o rk in g class.

In an a rtic le discussing labo r’s po litica l prospects in v ie w o f E isenhower’s illness, the New Y o rk T im es o f Sept. 26 says: “ They (la bo r leaders) do no t w a n t to be in a position where D em ocratic leaders can say th a t labor has no place else to go. Yet th a t is a lm ost the w ay i t is.”

T h a t is the w ay i t is i f the Republican P a rty is the o n ly a lte rn a tive to the Dem ocrats. B u t election o f a Dem ocratic ad­m in is tra tio n and then fo u r years o f d is illus ionm ent w ith it- m ay w e ll convince the ra n k and file that, there is another place to go — th a t is in to independent p o lit ­ical action by fo rm in g a Labor P a rty .

Bolsheviki and World Peace

by Leon Trotsky238 pp. $2.50

V e r y R a r e

Limited number available now order from

Pioneer Publishers116 University Place

New York 3, N . Y .

O f f - D u t y Cop----------------- By Ben Haines ----------------

Suggests CartoonE d ito r :

Here is an idea I would like to suggest as appropria te fo r a cartoon on peaceful coexistence.

In the le ft background the f ig ­ure o f Moneybags is backing away, a te rr if ie d look on his face, his r ig h t pa lm extended fo r p ro tection , and h is le f t a rm poised to h u rl an H-Bomb.

The am azing s ig h t he beholds in the foreground is the s t ir r in g o f a chained g ian t, a symbol o f the revo lu tiona ry colonial peo­ples who are s tru g g lin g to break the chains o f im peria lism .

In the m iddle o f the p ic tu re and s lig h tly in f ro n t o f M oney­bags is the K re m lin bureaucrat, Bulganin . A lthough his eye is on the g ian t, his head is turned tow ards Moneybags to whom he is saying, “ I tr ied to exp la in .” H is arm s and open palm s are stretched downward and. ou t in exasperation.

The t i t le m ig h t read: “ C O E X ­IS T E N C E OR T H E F IN A L C O N F LIC T ? ”

J. B.M inneapolis, M inn.